RKA^SAS 



F 

411 




Twenty-Third Edition. 




lass 



ink 



F4n 



PRESENTED BY 



ARKANSAS 



Statistics and information showing its 

Agricultural and Mineral 

Resources. 



The Opportunities for Successful Stock and 

Fruit Raising, Manufacturing, 

Mining and Lumbering. 



The Advantages of Soil and Climate, and Notes on 

Scenery, Game, Fish, and Health and 

Pleasure Resorts of this 

Great State. ,,. m 



WITH COMPLIMENTS 
OF THE 

Passenger Department 

OF THE 

IRON MOUNTAIN ROUTE 




Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1896, by 

H. C. Townsend, General Passenger Agent Missouri Pacific Railway, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



Author. 



Twenty-Third Edition. 
December 1st, 1900. 



edi@a(ioip. 



Tr^O those who desire a good, cheap home, with a fertile soil 
and genial climate, where water and timber are abundant, 
and all kinds of grain, fruits and vegetables grow in profusion, 
with all the advantages of churches, schools and society : 

To those who have tilled the rock-ribbed hillsides of New 
England in a vain attempt to pay the farm mortgage and ob- 
tain a home of their own, and have seen the profits of the short 
summers eaten up to maintain the stock through the long 
cold winters ; where the smallest savings are made only by the 
severest toil and closest economy : 

To those who are struggling to make both ends meet by 
renting the worn-out farms of the middle Northern States, and 
who yearly see their scanty harvests go to pay rents, with 
scarcely enough left to clothe the farmer's family: 

To those who are tired of the blizzard-swept regions of the 
Northwest, and desire a milder and more congenial climate 
where the soil is as productive, where the winters are short and 
mild, where the problem of obtaining fuel and timber is not 
encountered : 

To the capitalist who desires to invest his money in safe, 
sure and profitable enterprises, where mines of all kinds are 
awaiting development, where superior advantages are offered to 



all lines of manufacturing, unsurpassed water power, cheap 
coal and timber, and the control of the Southwestern market : 

To all who are honest and willing to work and who desire 
to get along in the world — to the man with capital, to the man 
with muscle, to the farmer, to the merchant, to the stock 
raiser, to the fruit grower, to the miller, to the mechanic, to the 
lumberman, to the school teacher, to the clerk, to the laboring 
man, to the health and pleasure seeker and the sportsman — 
to all who wish to obtain a good home, wealth, happiness 
and comfort: — 

This Pamphlet on the Resources of Arkansas -is dedicated. 







Arkansas. 



^2- <g^ 



THIS State is not as some people imagine it, a great way off from 
the centers of business of the country. No long expensive trip 
has to be made, no hardships endured to reach it. Eleven 
hours' travel on a splendidly equipped railroad brings the home- 
seeker from St. Louis to the center of this favored commonwealth. To 
take supper in St. Louis, then to ride in the superb cars of the St. 
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, and breakfast next morning 
in Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas, is certainly no hardship. 









Fruit Farm, Crawford County. 

Arkansas is located in the milder portion of the Mississippi Valley 
and has an area of 53,045 square miles. Owing to the difference 
in the elevation of the various portions of the State and its 
southern location, a greater variety of products is raised than in any 
other of the States. In the southern section, semi-tropical fruits and 
plants are grown, and the products of the northern States are success- 
fully raised in all sections. The surface of the State is comparatively 
level in the east, gradually becoming more elevated toward the west, 
the greatest elevation being reached in the Ozark Mountains. The 



6 ARKANSAS 

surface of the State presents a pleasing variety of hill, plain, prairie, 
woodland, valley and stream. 

Perhaps no State in the country is better adapted by nature to all the 
industries and varieties of living from the land than Arkansas. The 
rich valleys are capable of producing cotton, corn, wheat, oats, and all 
varieties of grain. The genial warmth of the climate and rich soil 
make fruit-raising one of the most successful and agreeable occupa- 
tions. The magnificent apples grown in the State have taken the 
prizes at all the National pomological exhibits of recent years, includ- 
ing the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, in 1893. As a peach grow- 
ing State, Arkansas is equal to Delaware. Its peach products have 
already made St. Louis the earliest and cheapest peach market in the 
country. The small fruits, strawberries and others, are grown with 
surprising ease and success. Stock-raising, for obvious reasons, is 
most successful, and can be made one of the great industries of the 
State. The uplands and hill country furnish most excellent grazing, 
and water, the important feature of stock-raising, is abundant every- 
where. This, in addition to the short winters, during which very 
little feeding is necessary, the proximity to markets, shipping facili- 
ties, and cheap lands, makes stock-raising one of the most desirable 
industries that can be engaged in. Unlimited opportunities for the 
investment of capital in mines of iron, manganese, antimony, zinc, 
copper, lead, nickel, gypsum, coal, granite, mineral paints and ochres, 
marls, aluminum, kaolin, potters' and fire clays, fertilizing marls, soap- 
stone, fine marbles, mineral oils, natural gas, and probably other 
valuable metals and minerals, are offered. The water power of 
Arkansas is unsurpassed. The streams can be dotted with saw mills 
and flouring mills, and why should they not be with cotton mills? 
Here is an opportunity for live capitalists. 

Since the war, old prejudices against this State have given way before 
the light of investigation and truth, and the increase in the population 
is a strong evidence of the advantages found here, and of the State's 
growing popularity. The census returns of the State have been as 
follows : 

YEAR. POPULATION. YEAR. POPULATION. YEAR. POPULATION. 

1820 14,255 1850 209,897 1880 802,525 

1830 30,388 1860 435,450 1890 1,128,179 

1840 97,574 1870 484,471 1900 1,311,564 



ARKANSAS. 



ARKANSAS COMMERCIALLY CONSIDERED. 



N point of commercial advantages, Arkansas is second to no State in 
the Union for internal trade. Three trunk lines of railroad traverse 
the State from north to south, all centering in St. Louis, thus putting 
all sections of the State in direct communication with the great com- 
mercial metropolis of the Mississippi Valley. The Iron Mountain 
Boute, with its branches, traverses the State diagonally through the 
center, and also drains, by means of the Little Rock, Mississippi 
River & Texas, and the Little Rock & Fort Smith divisions, the 
Arkansas Eiver Valley from the Indian Territory to the Mississippi 
River. The Cotton Belt Route carries the commerce of the eastern 
section of the State, and the St. Louis & San Francisco furnishes an 
outlet for the western part. These roads penetrate, with their con- 
nections, the States of Texas and Louisiana to the Gulf, and furnish 
outlets to the south or north for the surplus productions of the State. 
Numerous smaller lines and branches intersect the State in all direc- 
tions, placing the larger cities in communication with each other, and 
acting as feeders for the commerce of the main lines. 

Very few of the States are provided with a system of navigable rivers 
as a factor in internal trade. In contrast, Arkansas has over 3,000 
miles of water available for commercial purposes, forming almost a 
complete system of river communication. The Mississippi River 
washes the eastern boundary about 500 miles in length ; the Arkansas 
River, flowing by Little Rock, the capital, is navigable for 500 miles ; 
the Red River, in the south, 300 miles ; the St. Francis, the White and 
Black Rivers, and several others, aggregating 3,250 miles of water 
available for steamboats, and about 500 additional miles for barges and 
rafts. New lines of railroad have been projected and surveyed. The 
tide of emigration, as evinced by inquiries, is clearly turning toward 
Arkansas.*" Railroads are anticipating the movement to make exten- 
sions wherever available. 



ARKANSAS. 9 

That it is a beautiful country none can deny. Everything unites to 
make it so, and the result of all the combined influences of climate, 
soil and location render it one of the most marvelously healthy regions 
known. Then, too, its every hillside gives birth to some sparkling 
spring of clear, pure water, while others are surcharged with mineral 
properties, and restore to health those who come here ailing or suffer- 
ing. Indeed the entire Slate has long been famous for its wonderful 
curative springs. 

A comprehensive view of the whole — what a scene it presents to the 
observer. Could it but be held for a moment before the gaze of the 
toiling thousands, who are wearing away their lives in sterile fields, or 
breathing away their existence in the crowded haunts of the far East, 
what a change would come over their thoughts. With this happy land 
before their eyes, could they be expected to rest contented? No, 
indeed ! And before many months had passed over their toil-bowed 
shoulders, they would be seen on the march for this Eldorado, which 
awaits them in the West— awaits with a warm welcome all worthy 
humanity which may come and knock for admittance. Even the poor 
man need not hesitate to come to this favored land, if he comes armed 
with a determination to be a man and work like a man. Labor may be 
easily obtained, and the laborer never fails to get every cent he 
earns. 

WHAT AN ARKANSAS FARMER CAN DO. 

He can raise from two hundred to three hundred bushels of sweet 
potatoes or from 100 to 400 bushels of Irish potatoes to the acre, and for 
fifty dollars he can build a house that will keep them the year round. 

He can plant one acre of artichokes and fatten fifty hogs on it ; the 
hogs can do their own digging and waste nothing. 

He can raise all kinds of stock 100 per cent cheaper than it can be 
done further north. 

He will not have to fertilize his land to make it yield a good harvest, 
although here, as elsewhere, judicious fertilization generally pays. 

He can make a living easier than in any other State in the South, and 
at the same time enjoy a more equable climate. 

He can run his farm without a mortgage on it. 



10 



ARKANSAS. 



He can raise finer fruit, a greater variety, and more of it than in any- 
other country in the world. 

He can have vegetables on his table the year round. 

He can plant one acre in cane and make 200 gallons of beautiful clear 
syrup, with no sorghum twang to it. 

Bees require no attention further than taking what honey you wish. 

You can raise four tons of clover hay per acre, and the ground does not 
have to be seeded but once in five years. 

Five tons of German millet is not a large yield for one year. 

"Wet land, sown in red top, forms an everlasting meadow of the finest 
hay in the world. 

One bale of cotton is the average yield, though one and one-half bales 
per acre is not an uncommon crop. 

There has never been a total failure of crops since the war, and but 
few partial ones. 

One hundred peach trees can be planted to the acre, and three to five 
bushels of choice fruit per tree can be counted upon after the third 
year. 




Some Arkansas Productions 



ARKANSAS. 11 



CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 



^<<|ftHE first question asked in considering a change of residence to a 
if distant State is, "What is the climate, and how will my health 
be affected by the change?" etc., etc. This is of first importance, as 
while one can modify the soil and productions by fertilization, good 
farming, irrigation, etc., the climate he has to take just as nature gives 
it. 

The climate of Arkansas, in comparison with northern climates, is 
decidedly mild, and yet presents a greater diversity of temperature at 
any given time than any equal area of country. This is owing to the 
difference of elevation and the many sheltered valleys. The season in 
the southeast is three weeks in advance of that of the northern part of 
the State. The rainfall is abundant, but days of sunshine largely pre- 
dominate. The extreme heat of the South and the intense cold of the 
North are never known. The mountain range on the west shelters 
the State from the blizzards that sweep the Northern country, the 
cold waves of the Northwest, called here northers. The seasons of 
seedtime and harvest are long and the period of winter is short and 
mild. Out-door work can go on during the whole year. Stock live, 
for the most part, on the ranges during the winter months. 

The following statistics, taken from 'the United States Weather 
Bureau Reports, give a general idea of the climate: 

"I have selected Little Rock as the one point which will give the 
most correct idea of our climate. First, on account of its being situated 
in almost the exact center of the State, and second, because the 
records cover a longer period than those of any other station in the 
State. 

"All data computed for 21 years. 



ARKANSAS. 



Month. 



Mean 
Temperature. 



Average 
Precipitation 



January 

February 

March 

April , 

May 

June , 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 

December 

Winter. 
Spring.. 
Summer 
Autumn 
Year 




Month 



Average Number of Day: 



Minimum 

Temperature 

Below 32. 



Maximum 

Temperature 

Above 90. 



Highest 
Tempera- 
ture. 



Lowest 
Tempera- 



January ... 
February .. 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 
December. 



14 
9 
6 
twice in 7 years 






4 
9 








once in 21 years 
twice in 3 years 

9 
16 
12 

6 
twice in 7 years 







78 

78 

87 

94 

93 

102 

103 

105 

100 

93 

83 

78 



- 5 
-12 
16 
28 
44 
51 
60 
52 
41 
32 
10 



Extremes — 12° on Feb. 12, 1899. 

105° on August 1, 1896. 



Earliest date of first killing frost, October 22. 
Latest date of first filling frost, December 4. 
Average date of first killing frost, November 8. 



14 ARKANSAS. 

Earliest date of last killing frost, February 23 ; latest date of last 
killing frost, April 14. Average date of last killing frost, March 22. 

E. B. Richards, Section Director, 

U. S. Weather Bureau. 

Thus it will be seen that neither extremes of heat or cold are reached 
in Arkansas, and that drought, which frequently injures the crops of 
the West and South, can never seriously affect those of Arkansas. At Lit- 
tle Rock the mean temperature for the months of June, July and August 
is several degrees lower than that of Saratoga, N. Y. Wisconsin, dur- 
ing the same months, was subjected to greater extremes of heat than Ar- 
kansas. United States statistics disclose the fact that the mortality rate 
at Little Rock is less than at any other military post in the Union. On 
the uplands and in the hilly and mountainous districts Arkansas is ex- 
ceptionally healthy, and people afflicted with rheumatism, catarrh, 
bronchial and pulmonary troubles, are always relieved and frequently 
permanently cured by a residence in Arkansas. Pneumonia prevails 
but very little and fatal cases are rare. While it is true that malaria is 
prevalent in the districts lying in the river bottoms where the timber is 
heavy and all vegetation rank, yet it is no more true of Arkansas than 
of any other portions of the country with similar regions of dense veg- 
etation and uncultivated soil. When the land is cleared up and brought 
under cultivation for a few years these influences disappear and the low 
lands of Arkansas become as healthy as the high lands, which are en- 
tirely free from malaria and challenge comparison for health with those 
of any part of the globe. 

The long, warm, genial season is of great advantage to the farmers. 
In the North, the season being so short, as soon as the deep frost is out 
of the ground every energy must be bent, and the greatest possible 
amount of labor brought into requisition, in order that the crops may be 
planted in time to mature before the short season is passed. Thereby a 
great deal of extra expense is incurred which the farmer of Arkansas is 
not subject to. The plow in Arkansas may be kept going every month 
in the year. There need be no rush at seed time. The soil may be 
prepared easily, thoroughly and without haste for the planting, which 
takes place in February for the earlier crops, and the others in March, 
while late potatoes, millet, fodder-corn, cow peas, etc., are often 
planted in June and July, and make fine crops. 



ARKANSAS. 



13 



An aggregate of 15 year's observation in Arkansas gives an average of 
75 rainy days in the year. 

A report of an investigation of 600 tornadoes in the United States and 
Territories gives only 8 as occurring in Arkansas. 

For twelve months in the year there is not a land the sun shines on 
favored with a climate that can compare with Arkansas. While other 
countries have their delightful seasons, like winter in California, sum- 
mer in Minnesota, and so on, for all the year round Arkansas is by far 
the most delightful. Look on the map of the world and you will at 
once see that this State is in the most favored belt of the temperate 
zone. 

While nights are hot in midsummer at the North, here we are fanned 
at the close of each day by the delightfully cool breezes from the Gulf 
of Mexico, or the higher lands to the West. A sweltering night here is a 
thing unknown. The writer says this deliberately after 25 years resi- 
dence in this State, preceded by 16 years in Central Illinois and ten 
years in Western New York. 




Walnut Logs, for Shipment to Germar 



le, Ark. 



16 



ARKANSAS. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES AND SOIL. 



ANY mistaken ideas have gone abroad in regard to the topography 
r ^l of Arkansas. It is popularly supposed by those ignorant of the 
State, to be a low-lying, swampy country, crossed by sluggish rivers, and 
breathing forth malarial poisons. This impression has been spread by 
persons who have seen that part of the State lying along the Mississippi 
river, or from some of the first railroads built through the State. These 
latter, to avoid the expense of heavy grading and deep cuts, were con- 




structed through the creek and river bottoms and the lower lands of 
the State. 

Depending on his observation from such a standpoint, the traveler 
would be apt to obtain a very erroneous impression of the State, t 

Only about one-fourth of the lands of the whole State are compara- 
tively level, and of these large portions are prairie, and others bottom 
lands, fertile but not swampy ; the other three-fourths are rolling, hilly 
or mountainous. The altitude of the State varies from 200 to 1,500 feet, 
and some of the highest mountains reach an elevation of 2,500 feet. It 
gradually rises towards the west, in rolling country, becoming more 



ARKANSAS. 



17 



hilly and elevated until the greatest height is reached in the Ozark 
Mountains in the west. The low lands are found mostly in the eastern 
portion of the State, along the Mississippi Eiver. 

The rivers of the State flow in a general southeasterly direction into 
the Mississippi. These, with their tributaries, give a large area of rich 
bottom lands, unsurpassed in productiveness, but unlike some of the low 
lands of the Mississippi, they are mostly elevated and dry, and capable 
of yielding the richest harvests as soon as cleared and brought under 
the plow. 

The engravings in this book are from recent photographs, and give a 
correct idea of the interior portions of this favored State. 




A Cabin Home in the Ozark Mountains. 

In the higher sections the scenery is beautiful, frequently approaching 
the grand, and always interesting. The State, in respect to its water 
courses, is divided into the Mississippi Valley, or lands on the east, 
the wide valley of the Arkansas running through the center of the 
State, the Ouachita in the southeast, and the Red River Valley in 
the south. The alluvial lands are found in the valleys of the numer- 
ous rivers of the State, and these bottoms are often miles in width 
and are the most productive in the world. In some instances they 
have been cultivated for forty years with the same crops, and are 
still yielding remunerative returns without the aid of fertilizers. Near 



IS 



ARKANSAS. 



the streams the soil is usually a gray sandy loam, becoming a red or 
black stiff land as it recedes from the streams, and light gray in color 
as the hills are approached. This land has great durability and 

productiveness, 
and is covered 
with a heavy 
growth of tim- 
ber, composed 
of gums, burr 
oak, white oak, 
Spanish and 
post oak, box- 
elder, ash, yel- 
low pine, hick- 
ory, red and 
white elm, etc. 
The rolling 
and hilly lands 
comprise about 
one-half the 
whole area of 
the State. These 
are to be found 
all over the 
State, but lie 
principally 
south and east 
of the mountain 
ranges. The 
soil is loose, 
loamy, easily 
cultivated and 
very productive. Apples, peaches, 
pears, grapes, plums, strawberries, 
potatoes, both sweet and Irish, garden 
vegetables, wheat, rye, oats, cotton and corn are produced on this 
soil in abundance. 




Farming Scene, 
Arkansas. 



ARKANSAS. 



19 



The geographical position of the State is greatly enhanced by the 
physical conformation of the country. Within the space of about 240 
miles from north to south, in the limits of the State, are to be found all 
the climatic and other characteristics of ten degrees of latitude, so that 
in Arkansas the great Southern staples are produced in luxuriance ; 
and also the leading staples and products of the Northern States, with 
better profits than in the North. 

The uplands of Arkansas remind one of the lands of Central New 
York and Pennsylvania, with a dash of Ohio and Indiana thrown in. 
Here is the same or a similar wealth of timber, which once covered 
those States ; here grasses thrive, and cattle fatten easily ; here the 
apple, peach, plum, pear, grape, strawberry and other small fruits, 
bear and ripen to perfection beside each cottage and farm house door, 
as they do in the most favored localities of the States named, only here 
they have a sweetness and flavor surpassing those grown farther north 
or on the flatter lands nearer the Gulf of Mexico. Here bees thrive 
and sing in drowsy contentment all day long of their honied treasures. 
Here, on our upland plateaus, a hardy, honest, peaceful, white 
yeomanry till the soil; a black face is seldom seen, and the negro 
question cuts no more figure than it does at the North. 



• 


mm 










.'•• ■ ! 










P*Cr 


^H 






^1 




WH*e» "•'xJcJi 








§83 






S^v. ' 's!^S5 








: 





ARKANSAS. 21 



AGRICULTURE. 



ITS PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE OUTLOOK. 



MJO State has better farming lands than Arkansas. No State, with 
J61 all the advantages of schools, churches, society, railroads, and 
close connection with the centers of commerce and population, can offer 
such a high order of farming lands so cheaply and on such reasonable 
terms. 

The State of Arkansas has more navigable streams than any in the 
Union. The rich alluvial soil of her valleys rivals any lands on the con- 
tinent for the production of cotton. Prior to the war slave labor was 
found better adapted to its culture than to other agricultural pursuits. The 
extreme poverty of the people, caused by the ravages of war, and the 
unsettled condition of public affairs for years afterwards, prevented the 
development of new resources. Consequently, until the past few years> 
the public attention was devoted wholly to the production of cotton. The 
numerous waterways served for transportation, and naturally the devel- 
opment of the country was confined to the valleys of the rivers. Other 
portions of the State, embracing the uplands, hills and plateaus, 
remained practically undeveloped. Prior to 1872 there was but one short 
line of railroad in operation in the State. General development is of 
recent date, but has been very rapid. Pure air, pure water, and variety 
of soil, coupled with an equable, salubrious climate, make the State 
one of great agricultural possibilities, capable of sustaining a dense 
population. The agricultural productions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and 
Kansas are produced equally well in Arkansas. In addition to these, 
more cotton is grown per acre and per hand, on an average, than in any 
other Southern State. Arkansas has earned, besides, a reputation not 
excelled as a fruit-growing country, having taken the premium over all 
competitors at -the Expositions of New Orleans, Boston, California, 
New York, St. Louis, Chicago, and wherever her matchless fruit has 



22 ARKANSAS. 

been shown . Its annual rainfall is much greater than that of many of the 
Northern States; consequently crops are less liable to be injured by 
drouth. Its equable climate and agricultural resources make it a good 
stock -growing country. 

The following statistics were compiled for the report and use of the 
Arkansas State Board of Emigration, and are useful in showing the 
present status of agriculture in Arkansas, and the cheering prospects 
for the future: 

No. acres in the State 33,500,000 

No. acres of timber land 19,000,000 

No. acres under cultivation 5,000,000 

No. acres adapted to fruit growing 10,000,000 

No. acres Government land 5,000,000 

No. acres State land 2,000,000 

No. acres coal land 2,500,000 

No. acres iron ore land 1,500,000 

No. acres prairie land 1,800,000 

By the above it will be seen that only 5,000,000 of the 33,500,000 
acres of land in the State are under cultivation ; that there are still 
in the State subject to homestead entry, 5,000,000 acres. 

Apropos of the above the following table reveals some interesting and 
surprising facts. It shows the comparative values of the farms and 
their products in some of the leading agricultural States : 



STATES. 



California .. 
Arkansas .. 

Nebraska... 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Minnesota.. 

Mississippi 



VALUE OF 
FARMS. 



$262,051,282 
74,249,655 

105,932,541 
507,430,227 
235,178,631 
193,724,260 
275,633,307 



LIVE STOCK. 



$ 35,500,417 
20,472,425 

33 440,265 
124,715,103 
60,907,149 
31,904,821 
95,785,282 



PRODUCTS. 



$ 59,721,215 
43,796,261 

31,708,914 
36,103,073 
52,240,561 
49.468,967 
95,912,660 



It will be seen by these figures that the value of the farms of Arkansas 
is the least of any of the States enumerated, varying from 50 to 700 per 
cent less ; that the total value of farm products is about the average of 
the seven States, some of them being the richest agricultural States in 
the country ; that the percentage of products to value of farms of Ar- 
kansas is from 50 to 800 per cent greater than that of the other seven 
States. When it is taken into consideration that only 5J)00,000 acres of 
Arkansas' total of 33,000,000 acres are under cultivation, the total prod- 



ARKANSAS. 



23 



uct of nearly $44,000,000 reveals an interesting and startling fact, and 
it would be well for those who are searching for a location where a 
home may be obtained quickly and cheaply, and where toil receives its 
greatest remuneration, to bear this fact in mind when comparing the 
advantages offered by different localities. 

It might be in place right here to give some of the reasons why the 
farmer receives greater returns for his labor in Arkansas than in some 
of the less favored States. In the first place, the superior quality of her 
products is an important factor. Arkansas has repeatedly taken the 
highest prizes for cotton and fruit over all competitors at the national 
exhibits of those products. In the region about Pine Bluff a quality of 

cotton, superior to 
any in the world in 
strength of fiber 
is grown. An agent 
of Clark Bros., the 
famous cotton 
thread manufact- 
urers of London, 
annually buys up 
the total product of 
this region and 
ships it to London 
to be manufactured 
into the famous O. 
N. T. thread. In 
addition to always 
carrying off the prize, Arkansas produces more cotton to the acre and 
hand than any other State. The principal cause, however, of the 
great returns from agricultural pursuits is the fertility of her soils, the 
early season, and the adaptability of the State to the growth of all 
kinds of fruits and vegetables. It is the only State in the West, south 
of Mason and Dixon's Line, where these are grown in great quantities 
for shipment. Arkansas commands the Western market with its early 
products. Its fruits and vegetables are before all others in the markets 
of St. Louis and Chicago, and always at the highest market prices. 
Ready markets are found for all that can be raised. 




Arkansas Fruit 



24 



ARKANSAS. 



The following figures show the average cash value per acre of all 
crops taken together in the various States : 



Alabama $13.49 

Arkansas 20.40 

California 17.18 

Connecticut 16.82 

Delaware 17.68 

Florida 8.52 

Georgia 10.35 

Iowa 8.88 

Illinois 12.47 

Indiana 14.66 

Kentucky 13.58 

Louisiana 22.40 

Massachusetts 26.71 

Maine 13.51 

Maryland 17.82 

Michigan 18 96 



Minnesota 110.29 

Mississippi 14.76 

Missouri 10.78 

New Jersey 18.05 

New York 14.15 

New Hampshire. . v 13.56 

North Carolina 10.79 

Ohio 15.58 

Oregon 17.11 

Pennsylvania 17.68 

Rhode Island 29.32 

South Carolina 10.09 

Tennessee.. 12.39 

Vermont 11.60 

Virginia ... 10.91 

West Virginia 12.74 



The above figures may open the eyes of some of our readers, especially 
those of the North and East; but it is to be remembered that this 
State is in the South, and, were the same attention given to preparing 
Ihe soil and cultivating the crops as in the New England States, the 
results would be still more astonishing. It should be remembered that 
only a little more than one-seventh of the entire State is under cultiva- 
tion, that large areas of the best fruit and farming lands are still unoc- 
cupied, that the latest and most improved methods of farming and 
fruit-raising are in use only in a few exceptional instances. With all 
these disadvantages against her, yet standing, in the general average, 
better than the best; with the tide of intelligent emigration setting 
strongly in this direction; with change and improvement taking place 
in all branches of industry, the outlook for the future prosperity and 
rapid growth of Arkansas is bright indeed. 



ARKANSAS. 



PRODUCTS 



COTTON. 

^HE southern and southeastern portions of the State have eminently 
the soil and climatic conditions for producing the great staple of 
the South, cotton, and it is now a conceded fact, emphasized by first 
premiums awarded her at every exposition where she has competed for 
the past 20 years, notedly at St. Louis, Atlanta, Louisville, New 
Orleans, and Chicago in 1893, that Arkansas is the queen of the South 
in the production of this staple. To show the true position of this 
State, agriculturally, as compared with other States, the following table 
from United States Official Report is in evidence : 

AVERAGE VALUE PER ACRE FOR THE PAST TEN YEARS. 



States. 



Corn. 



Wheat. 



Oats. 



Potatoes. 



Cotton. 



Hay. 



Virginia 

North Carolina 
South Carolina 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Texas 

ARKANSAS ... 

Tennessee 

Illinois 

Iowa 

Missouri 

Kansas 

Nebraska 



46 
15 

1!) 
81 
22 
69 

8 47 

9 54 
9 52 

10 07 

8 92 

9 38 
8 63 
8 94 
7 90 
7 58 



$ 8 05 
6 42 

6 73 

7 01 



6 60 

6 35 

9 25 
7 23 

5 95 
11 32 

7 56 
9 23 
9 41 

6 87 



$4 73 

4 56 

6 18 

5 85 

7 04 

6 36 

6 40 

7 07 
9 98 

7 68 

5 20 

8 95 
7 34 

6 96 
6 44 
5 78 



$34 20 
38 30 
46 11 
53 10 
65 66 
56 02 

53 01 

54 03 
58 21 

47 U 
30 49 
35 24 
32 51 
32 97 
40 07 
30 68 



$13 96 

16 25 
14 40 
13 11 

11 16 

12 43 

17 31 
20 83 
16 92 

20 08 
16 54 



$13 60 

13 45 

15 71 
17 31 

16 37 
16 54 
16 10 

14 50 
12 20 

13 20 
14 14 
10 26 
6 39 
9 38 
5 50 
4 82 



CORN. 



It will be seen from the above that Arkansas takes a high position as 
a corn producing State. It is a maxim among our old pioneer farmers 
that one is always sure of a crop if he plants in March. With the 



ARKANSAS. 2? 

employment of fertilizers, so freely used in other States, our average 
yield could easily be doubled. Along our water courses are over 
6,000,000 acres of the finest corn land in the world, while our "second 
bench" and uplands yield equally with the ordinary prairies of the most 
highly favored corn belt. With our corn production and mild, brief 
winters, the problem of cheap meat is already half solved. 



t 




. f ft... 






■?v-.^. * - y n ^ /■■•< 


Ifc&v S 


,. x r** vffiKo 



Cotton Field in Arkansas. 

The corn crop of Arkansas, as given by the last census was 33,982,318 
bushels, or about 5,000,000 bushels more than that of Michigan, over 
9,000,000 bushels greater than that of Minnesota, and four times as great 
as the combined crop of all the New England States, with that of Colorado 
and California thrown in for full measure. Since the census year 
(1889), the acreage and yield of corn in Arkansas have been largely 
increased. A further point to be noted in this connection is that our 
early springs and late falls give a long growing season, furnishing 
opportunity to raise two or even three crops of excellent fodder-plants 
or vegetables on the same ground per annum, as, for instance: corn. 



28 ARKANSAS. 

millet and turnips ; or early Irish potatoes, cow peas and turnips or 

winter rye. 

WHEAT AND OTHER PRODUCTS. 

The northern half of the State has heretofore taken the lead in the 

raising of wheat, but enough has been produced in almost every one of 

the seventy-five counties to prove that it can be successfully grown all 

over the State. The only reason why the farmers have not done so to 

a greater extent is from the mistaken idea that there was more profit 

in cotton than in any other crop, and that with cotton they could more 

profitably buy bread, meat and forage than to raise them. These ideas 

are rapidly passing away, and our farmers are becoming expansionists. 

They may not be so politically ; this is not a political publication, and 

has nothing to say on political questions, but it is nevertheless true 

that the farmers of Arkansas are expansionists ; they are entering and 

possessing themselves of new domains of agriculture ; have captured 

the early Irish potato patch, the apple orchard and the strawberry 

farm, and now they are annexing thousands of wheat fields, the low 

price of cotton stimulating the production of this grain. 

The clay uplands of Arkansas, along the line of the Iron Mountain 
Route, like those of New York and Pennsylvania, are admirably suited 
to the production of this grand cereal, and when farmed as those lands 
are farmed, are found to be equally productive, yielding from fifteen to 
thirty-five bushels per acre, and when it is remembered that these 
lands can be bought of the land department of the Iron Mountain 
Route, at from $3.50 to $5 per acre, the splendid opportunities held 
out to farmers is apparent, and it is no wonder there are many 
expansionists in this direction. 

Chinch-bugs and midge are comparatively unknown in our State, 
and wheat is singularly exempt from diseases. 

We have not time or space here to take up each of our agricultural 
products separately, but can only in a general way state the fact that 
in addition to corn and wheat, oats, barley, millet, sorghum, cowpeas, 
buckwheat, rye, etc., all do excellently well here, while as above 
noted the length of our seasons gives many opportunities to good 
farmers to double crop the same season. 









<; 



vv 



©si 




Shannon Apple — 4 Years Oid. 



30 ARKANSAS. 

FRUIT. 

It is but about fifteen years since the first of Arkansas fruits began to 
be shipped to and shown at the North. Now, she is known almost the 
world over, having added to her former trophies those gained in 
Chicago at the Columbian Exhibition for her superb display of apples. 
Previous to this she had taken first awards wherever she had displayed 
her magnificent fruit. 

At the Cotton Centennial World's Fair, held in New Orleans 1884-85, 
where 22,000 plates were exhibited, Arkansas not only received the 
highest award for the best individual apple, the Shannon, but for the 
largest and best collection she was awarded the gold medal and $200. 
Indeed this exhibit was, without doubt, the finest and most extensive 
ever made. 

The Bural New Yorker in speaking of it said: "The Shannon apple 
from Arkansas, a seedling of that State, received $25 in three premiums 
— one of $10 for the finest and best apple, $10 for the best new apple, 
and $5 for the best plate of apples." 

The Farm and Garden, of Philadelphia, in speaking of the Shannon, 
said " it was not only the best apple in the world, but Arkansas is the 
best fruit State in the Union." 

At a meeting of the American Pomological Society, held in Boston, 
September 15, 1887, Arkansas exhibited sixty-eight new varieties of 
apples, and was awarded the Wilder Medal, the highest honor in the 
gift of the Society. She was also awarded the medal for the largest and 
best collection of apples. 

The Boston Herald, of that date, thus comments on the Arkansas 
exhibit: ' 'It comprises one of the finest displays of fruit ever seen in 
this part of the country. It is a revelation to New England horticul- 
turists, and is receiving the attention it so justly merits. The collection 
is entirely the product of Arkansas, and consists chiefly of apples and 
pears. The display comprises sixty-six varieties of native seedlings, 
by far the largest number ever shown in the United States. All of this 
fruit is sound and of delicious flavor. The specimens are marvellously 
large, and it seems almost incredible that such rich results are obtained 
without employment of artificial aid. There are shown seventy varieties 
of cultivated fruit, which, for size and appearance, distance anything 
in the same line ever seen in this or any other Northern city. No State 
in the Union, it would seem, can compete with her in this line, a fact 



ARKANSAS. 31 

that is becoming known through the enterprise of those who wish to 
see the State's vast fields settled up and under the hand of cultivation." 

Close on the heels of the Boston exhibit, Arkansas appeared before 
the American Horticultural Society, at Riverside, California, February 
7, 1888, and carried off first honors on apples. Her exhibit was the 
admiration of all visitors, and consisted of sixty-eight varieties, twenty 
of which were seedlings exhibited at Boston. When we remember the 
thousands of miles traveled, the changes in temperature, the long time 
in which both color and flavor were preserved, we doubt if any apple 
grown elsewhere would have passed through such a severe ordeal suc- 
cessfully. The Riverside Press said: "It was the grandest display of 
apples ever made on the Pacific Coast. The whole collection was a 
surprise, not only to our California people, but to many prominent fruit 
men from the Northeast, who had not, heretofore, recognized Arkansas 
as an apple-growing State." 

At the American Institute, New York City, October, 1890, Arkansas 
carried away every prize she entered for. Mr. Gerald Howatt, staff 
correspondent of the Country Gentleman, Albany, N. Y., furnished his 
journal with a full account, declaring that he never saw such a fine 
display of apples, in appearance, size and quality, as those shown from 
Arkansas. This means a good deal, coming, as it does, from Mr. 
Howatt, who has been judge of fruits at the American Institute Expo- 
sition for many years, and who has also been judge of fruits at Sacra- 
mento and San Francisco, Cal. 

But the questions will be asked, "Do apple trees in Arkansas come 
into bearing early, or must one wait a half a lifetime for the first crop?" 
Then again, "Do they continue long in bearing, or only bear a few 
crops and die?" 

After personal interviews with scores of apple growers in this State, 
the writer can say that their testimony is that apple trees here begin to 
bear at from five to six years from the nursery, and continue in bearing 
from thirty to sixty years. 

James Cline, of Ozone, has an orchard which has been in bearing 
thirty years, and is now producing an annual yield of twenty-five 
bushels to the tree. This is only one of thousands of like cases. 

The fact is, the apple business of Arkansas has passed beyond the 
experimental stage, and is an assured success ; hundreds of car loads of 



ARKANSAS. 



33 



this magnificent fruit being shipped out each year from each of the main 
shipping towns in the apple belt. 

Peaches, Pears, Plums, Etc — Arkansas is also pre-eminently a 
peach country. Professor John C. Branner, now of Leland Stanford 
University, California, in his recently published geological report upon 
Southwestern Arkansas, pronounces it equivalent in soil, climate, etc., 
with the celebrated peach growing regions of New Jersey. 

The natural habitat of the peach is Persia and Asiatic Turkey, lying 
between the parallels of 30 and 40 degrees of latitude. Arkansas being 




Sorting Fruit for Market. 

the very center of this belt, accounts for the perfection and profusion 
which this fruit attains in the State. For years a budded peach tree 
was unknown in Arkansas. Only seedlings were raised, but these were 
so superior in quality that the need of the improved varieties was not 
felt. Had these trees been grown at the North, hundreds of them 
would have been given popular names and put on the market, becoming 
at once famous and bringing fortunes to their owners. The seedlings 
flourished for years without fame and name. The family wants were 
supplied, and the remainder went in a vain attempt to fatten the old 
style of Arkansas hog. This regime is wholly changed in some sections, 



34 ARKANSAS. 

and the disintegration of the old ideas is going on throughout the 
whole Stale rapidly. The cultivation of this fruit is receiving the same 
attention as in the North and East. All the improved varieties have 
been introduced, and the superiority of Arkansas peaches is appreciated 
in all the Western and Southern markets. Along the line of the St. 
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, the greater part of the peach 
crop is raised and shipped. The trees commence to bear three years 
from the seed, and such is their vigor that they are rarely injured by 
borers, and the curl and yellow leaf are not known to have affected 
Arkansas orchards. 

Some of the best varieties ripen in May. This gives growers full 
command of the earliest Northern markets when fruit is in greatest 
demand, and prices are highest. 

Pears and plums, with the same care and attention given them in 
other States, yield excellent returns in all parts of Arkansas, the latter 
having been shipped in car load lots from some points. But a great 
field is still open to those who will cultivate the above named fruits, 
especially plums of the Japanese varieties, which are of delicious 
flavor, bear abundantly, are almost if not entirely free from the 
depredations of the curculio, and sell for an excellent price in Northern 
markets. 

Strawberries and Grapes.— The culture of strawberries for ship- 
ment is another business that has grown up within the past few years 
from zero to large proportions, and, like the apple and peach business, 
is making those rich who are engaged in it. Several of our towns have 
shipped each over 60,000 crates, 24 boxes to a crate, the past season. 
The Arkansas strawberries have a high reputation in Northern markets, 
and command the best prices. 

Our hillsides and valleys are the native home of the grape. Here are 
found, growing wild, large, luscious, translucent grapes, that fifty years 
ago attracted the attention of Nicholas Longworth, the great fruit con- 
noisseur of Cincinnati, and to-day our commercial vineyards supply the 
larger cities of our State with magnificent Ives, Concords, Moore's 
Early, Niagaras, Delawares, Wyoming Red, etc. The production is not 
heavy enough as yet to leave much surplus to ship to Northern markets. 



ARKANSAS. 35 



VEGETABLES. 



u Shall I have to do without Irish potatoes, onions, cabbages, beans 
peas, and the other vegetables I have been used to in my native State, 
if I come to Arkansas?" 

No, my dear sir, you can raise all these and all other vegetables of the 
North and East in profusion, and of fine size and most excellent quality. 
We know the idea has obtained that Irish potatoes could only be grown 
here as a very early crop, but of late years the experience of our farm- 
ers has proved that not only can a very early crop be grown success- 
fully, but that late planted potatoes, in fact a second crop with seed 
from the first crop on the same ground, yield superbly and keep in fine 
condition the year round, furnishing better seed for the next season's 
planting than imported Northern potatoes. 

The following article, taken from the columns of one of our State 
papers, will give some idea of what is being done in a large way upon 
one of our hill farms and what can be done by any man having energy 
and "gumption." 

''Most of our readers are somewhat familiar with the history of the 
Poole fruit and potato farm at Ozark, Franklin county, Arkansas, and 
know that Mr. Poole does nothing by halves. When he goes after pre- 
miums at our county, district or State fairs, he carries home blue ribbon 
enough to decorate one side of his "living room." It is the way he is 
built. He can't help it. So when he raises potatoes, there is no half 
way work about it, and for his sweet potato crop this year he has in bed 
and growing nicely 500 bushels for sets, or slips. This is one side of 
his potato patch. On the other side will be 400 to 500 bushels of Irish 
potatoes planted. And between the two nether ends of this patch he 
expects to grow thirty, fifty, seventy— yes, and with good luck, 80,000 
bushels of potatoes. Mr. Poole is no uncertain farmer. His land always 
has its seedtime, that is his; and its certain harvest, that is God's. 
Like Paul, Poole plants and God gives gloriously. For nine successive 
years, without fertilizing or changing his seed, Mr. Poole has grown 
immensely large crops of potatoes — two crops each year. He plants in 
February for early spring shipments, and for seed and his main crop 
in July." 

In an adjoining county a Mr. George Payne planted in July 1893, on 
plateau land, "up on the mountain," he called it, 7 acres of Irish potatoes, 



ARKANSAS. 37 

of the Peerless variety, himself and his young son doing all the work of 
plowing, planting and cultivation. In the fall he harvested from this 
patch 810 bushels of sound, fine merchantable potatoes, and sold them 
at an average price of 50 cents per bushel. 

Mr. Treimer, an old German farmer, on chocolate, sandy land, near 
Clarksville, got from one acre by planting two crops on the same land, 
400 bushels, two hundred and twenty-five bushels the first crop, and 
one hundred and seventy-five bushels the second. Both these crops 
and that of Mr. Payne had no manuring or other fertilization whatever, 
and both were on land that had been in cultivation for many years. 

Quoting from the correspondence of one of our daily papers, we give 
the following, in regard to cabbages. 

"Eleven miles north of Ozark, lives Mr. George Warnock, who last 
year set out about three-fourths of an acre of cabbages. He sold B. L. 
Jones an Ozark merchant at one time $156 worth of cabbage from his 
little patch besides which Mr. Jones told the writer that he bought 
several other w r agon loads of him from the same ground." — Arkansas 
Daily Press, May 18, 1894. 

Onions grow large, fine, sweet and sound, both from sets or seed, on our 
Arkansas soils ; beans, peas, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, sweet 
potatoes and all other vegetables, are grown here in bountiful profusion. 

GRASSES, PASTURAGE AND LIVE STOCK. 

The South is eminently a grass country, having hundreds of varieties 
of native grasses, and while it is found that the cultivated grasses of 
the North do remarkably well, other excellent varieties tbat cannot be 
grown at the North also thrive here and are exceedingly profitable. 

Every farmer in Arkansas can have his permanent pastures 
and meadows. The raising of abundant crops of hay and grass 
at the South is no longer an experiment, and it is proven that bountiful 
supplies of nutritious fodder can be produced here with infinitely less 
labor and expense than by the old corn fodder pulling system. 

BERMUDA, THE BLUE GRASS OP THE SOUTH. 

Not content with the annexation of orchards, truck farms and 
wher.t fields, Arkansas farmers upon the uplands along the line of 
the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, and Little Rock & Fort 






"*>%&■ 
$ 




ARKANSAS. 39 

Smith Railways, are now expanding in the direction of Bermuda grass 
pastures. Having discovered the great value of this grass, they 
are annexing it to their crop possessions. It costs almost nothing 
to establish a Bermuda grass pasture, as small pieces of sod are the 
only seed required, and when once set it is permanent, never dying 
out or needing resetting or further cultivation. A third item is that 
stock of all kinds are excessively fond of it, and it is very sweet, 
nutritious and fattening. It furnishes, during eight months of the 
year, the finest feed for young stock, beef cattle or milch cows, 
and is cheaper and better for this latitude than any other known 
forage. The hottest and driest weather does not kill it, neither does 
close feeding or trampling, and it will thrive on almost any kind of 
land, poor or rich, clay or sand. The possession of this grass gives 
grand possibilities for cattle raising and dairy farming in Central 
Arkansas upon the splendid uplands along the line of the Iron 
Mountain Route. 

Alfalfa succeeds admirably in Arkansas without irrigation, and, like 
Bermuda grass, when once established it is perennial, and costs noth- 
ing to maintain it. Fall or winter-sown clovers also do remarkably 
well here, as do also most all varieties of cultivated grasses, affording 
abundant hay and pasturage. 

The availability of these food supplies, and of the cheap, fattening 
foods found in cotton seed, cotton seed meal and cotton seed hulls, 
together with abundant fine stock water, and almost no winter at all, 
make this State pre-eminent as a cattle raising country, while hogs do 
excellently well on the great timber ranges, getting their own living 
from the plentiful mast, a few bushels of corn at last putting them in 
fine condition for market. 

DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

The farmers of Arkansas have long been in the habit of producing a 
limited supply of butter for their own use, and perhaps a few pounds for 
sale, but it is only within the past fifteen or twenty years, since 
improved breeds of cattle, such as tl.e Jersey, Holstein, etc., have 



40 ARKANSAS. 

been introduced, the finer tame grasses have been found to succeed 
here, and Northern immigration has begun to pour in, that much 
has been done in a commercial way in the manufacture of butter 
and cheese. Now, in some four or five localities, there are well 
established creameries, turning out their, thousands of pounds of 
sweet yellow butter that holds its own in our cities in competition 
with the products of Northern dairies. 

A splendid quality of cheese is also made at one cheese factory here, 
and what is being done in butter and cheese in these few localities 
ought to be duplicated in every county of the State that has a railroad 
running through it. 

MINERALS. 

To the mineralogist, Arkansas is an interesting region. In variety of 
useful minerals she is not outranked by any other State. 

The coal fields of Arkansas are very extensive, covering an estimated 
area of 12,000 square miles, and in the valley of Arkansas, where coal 
mining is most largely prosecuted, the beds average a thickness of four 
feet. The most valuable deposits of this mineral are found in 
the counties of Sebastian, Scott, Logan, Franklin, Johnson, Pope and 
Yell. But a small portion of this vast coal deposit is being developed. 

The lignite coal commences a few miles south of Little Rock and 
extends into Texas, comprising. a larger area than any other coal field in 
the United States. This variety of coal has of late been extensively 
mined in Germany. Last year over 15,000,000 tons were used in varioi 
manufactures. 

Iron. — In the hilly regions, including the counties of Pulaski, Craw- 
ford, Dallas, Saline, Grant, Hot Spring, Independence, Izard, Law- 
rence, Logan, Madison, Pike, Polk, Sevier, Sharp, Searcy, Van Buren, 
Howard, Cleburne, White, Montgomery and Scott, magnetic, hematite, 
limonite, carbonate, and specular iron ores are found in large quanti- 
ties. The hematite iron beds in some places crop out upon the surface 
acres in extent. In many places this iron is situate in close proximity 
to the coal and limestone. The iron interest of the State has not been 
in anywise developed. 

Manganese. — In the county of Independence large deposits of an 
excellent quality of manganese are found, and near the town of Bates- 
ville, on the White River, mines of this ore have been opened within 



ARKANSAS. 41 

the past twelve years, and many car loads are now shipped every 
week to the steel works of the North and East. The St. Louis, Iron 
Mountain & Southern Railway has a branch road running to these mines. 

In Central and Southwestern Arkansas, in the counties of Pulaski, 
Hot Spring, Montgomery and Polk, is found another zone of this 
metal, but as there are no good shipping facilities at present near 
these deposits, but very little development work has been done. It is 
a valuable mineral, and the ores of Arkansas are of superior grade and 
bear a good price. 

Zinc. — Zinc ore, in great abundance, is found in Marion, Searcy, 
Boone, Lawrence, and adjacent counties. It is attracting large atten- 
tion from miners and capitalists, a number of paying mines have been 
opened, the ore from some of them assaying as high as 67 per cent 
metal. This promises to afford one of the best paying industries of 
North Arkansas. The ores are both carbonate and blende, and the 
deposits crop out in many places, and are found from the grass roots 
down, both in placer (horizontal) deposits and in true fissure veins. 

The great need of this district is better shipping facilities, though 
even now ore worth $20 to $40 per ton is being shipped to St. Louis at a 
cost of from $3 to $5 per ton. With the coming of railroads, now under 
survey and contract, a new impulse will be given to this industry, and 
millions of tons will be shipped from these vast fields. 

Arkansas took first award at the Chicago Columbian Exhibition upon 
her zinc ores, among her exhibits there was one piece of ore weighing 
over 12,000 pounds. 

Lead. — Arkansas promises to afford considerable lead ore. This 
mineral is found in most of the mountainous sections of the State ; that 
found in the counties of Pulaski, Sevier, Polk, Montgomery and 
Howard is rich in silver. 

Copper in the form of carbonate and sulphuret has been found in 
various parts of the State. The largest deposit was found a few years 
ago in Marion county. There can be no question but that this is a rich 
and valuable deposit. 

Other Minerals. — Rich deposits of antimony have been found in 
Sevier county, kaolin, or porcelain clay, of the best quality is found in 
many counties of the State. The best deposits are in the counties of 
Hot Spring, Saline, Howard, Ouachita and Pulaski. In the latter 



42 ARKANSAS. 

county it can be mined at small expense by stripping the light 
soil which covers it. This clay is used in the manufacture of the finer 
porcelains. 

Extensive beds of gypsum, often crystalized into selenite, are found 
in the counties of Pike, Bradley and Howard, and these gypsums are 
valuable both for the manufacture of plaster of paris and land plaster 
for fertilization. In the southwest portion of the State are also found 
deposits which are declared by eminent authority to be most valuable, 
namely : 

Marls, Chalks and Greensands. — These are found in the counties 
of Clark, Pike, Howard, Sevier, Little River and Hempstead. Professor 
Branner, who now fills the chair of geological science at Leland Stan- 
ford University, California, in his lately published report of his geological 
survey of Arkansas, declares that these deposits used as fertilizers are 
"more valuable than all the gold of California." 

The superficial extent of these beds, examined by Professor Branner, 
is a triangle some 100 miles in length, and the depth were exposed or 
the banks of rivers, about 80 feet thick. The different strata he describes 
as "finely comminuted, blue, arenaceous gypsiferous sands and clay marl, 
with fossils. Pure, massive saccharoidal gypsum; fossiliferous bands oi 
fissile, arenaceous limestone ; fine grained sands and marl, with irregular 
deposits of lignite and bones of saurians, etc." 

In the immediate neighborhood of these vast beds of natural fertilizers, 
are the Rocky Comfort chalks, of which there is a surface exposure of 
about 20 square miles, and another outcrop at White Cliffs on Little 
River. The professor shows by tables of analysis, that these chalks, 
and the clays found near by, are identical with those used at Medway, 
England, where the best Portland cement is manufactured. Of Port- 
land and other kindred European cements we imported into the United 
States in the year 1892 over 1,000,000 casks. Surely here is a great 
opening for capitalists : Materials in endless amount, of the best quality, 
upon the very top of the ground, and the United States and South 
American countries for a market! 

Bauxite. — We have in Pulaski and Saline counties valuable and large 
deposits of this rare mineral, from which aluminum and alum are manu- 
factured. It should receive more attention than has yet been given it. 

Marble.— The deposits of marble in this State are greater than that of 
anv other State in the Union. The larger portion of the marble of the 



ARKANSAS. 43 

State is similar in color to that of the Tennessee marble, we have also 
pink, gray and white, and in the counties of Independence and Searcy 
a black marble is found ; all are capable of receiving a high polish. A 
very valuable quality of lithographic stone has been discovered in Izard 
and Independence counties, which compares favorably in firmness of 
texture and freedom from flaws with the best imported stone. Nitre and 
paint earths are found in great quantities, the latter yielding many 
shades of color and being free from grit. 

Roofing slate is found in the counties of Pulaski, Saline, Polk, Pike 
and Sevier. This slate, in point of durability, evenness of cleavage and 
beauty of color is equal to the celebrated slates of Vermont. Quarries 
are being opened in Pulaski and Saline counties. Granite of superior 
quality is found within a few miles of Little Rock. The celebrated 
Hot Springs hone-stone is found in Garland county in inexhaustible 
quantities, as is also the Ouachita whetstone. Serpentine is also found 
in Pulaski and Saline counties, while building stone — both lime-stone 
and sand-stone of superior quality — is found in two-thirds of the coun- 
ties of the State. These rich mineral resources of the State are but little 
developed and present a grand opportunity for profitable investment. 
Petroleum and natural gas have been found in Logan and Sebastian 
counties, but as yet there has not been sufficient prospecting done to 
determine the amount or extent of the field, but as the work progresses, 
the indications are most promising. Then we have fine beds of soap- 
stone or steatite, said to be the only deposit of this mineral now known 
in the Mississippi Valley. 

Last, but not least, we have a great wealth of valuable clays suitable 
for stoneware, brick, fire brick, and in connection with our shales, for 
the manufacture of vitrified paving brick. 

TIMBER. 

It is a greater drawback to farming to be wholly without timber than 
to have too much of it to start with. A part of the land of Arkansas is 
prairie, but a large portion of it is heavily timbered. The timber of 
our country is rapidly becomiDg exhausted, and in Arkansas are to be 
found the only large bodies of timber still untouched. They are of the 
greatest variety and the most useful and valuable to be found in the 
world. The timber of Michigan and the North is being rapidly 



ARKANSAS. 



45 



exhausted; lumbermen are turning their attention toward Arkansas, 
and in a few years it will be difficult to obtain such land, and prices 
will be ten times what they now are. 

North of the Arkansas River the forests are mostly composed of the 
deciduous trees of the Mississippi basin, through which isolated belts 
occur, often of considerable extent, in which the short-leaf pine, the 
only species found in northern Arkansas, is mixed with the hard- 
woods. The western part of the State, south of the Arkansas 
River and west of the broad level plain of the Mississippi River, is 




Stave Factory, Jackson County. 

covered outside of the river bottom lands with an almost continuous 
forest of pine. Great bodies of cypress cover the low lands that 
stretch along the eastern border of the State, or line the bottoms of the 
White, Arkansas, Ouachita and Red Rivers. The hardwood forests of 
the State are unsurpassed in variety and richness, and contain inestima- 
ble varieties of the finest oak, walnut, hickory and ash timber. It has 
only been within the last twenty years that pine lumber has been 
manufactured, except to supply a limited local demand. The forests 
of Arkansas have received comparatively little damage from fire. 

The amount of short-leaf pine standing in Arkansas in 1892 is 
estimated at 40,000,000,000 feet board measure. The above estimate 
does not include trees below 15 inches in diameter, and ignores the fact 



46 



ARKANSAS. 



that in Arkansas, pine largely replaces pine, which would insure a con- 
tinued supply. During the year 1892, $20,000,000 worth of lumber was 
shipped out of the State, requiring 100,000 cars for its transportation. 

When the attention of manufacturers is turned to the immense timber 
supply of this State, and to the fact that the Southwest is no longer the 
sparsely settled country it formerly was, that it is rapidly filling up with 
intelligent, enterprising people, that it is rapidly becoming an excellent 




market for furniture, wagons, agricultural implements, -stoves, paper, 
chairs, railway cars, and other manufactured articles, the wealth of 
Arkansas will be greatly increased by reason of the transfer of old, and 
the putting up of new manufacturing plants here. 

For the benefit of readers who are not familiar with the products of 
this State, we will state that more than sixty kinds of wood are found 
in sufficient quantity for commercial purposes, consisting in part of 
pine, oaks in variety, black walnut, cherry, holly, ash, hickory of every 
kind found on the American continent, cypress, poplar, gum, beech, 
pecan, sycamore, elm, cotton wood, cedar, and many others; enabling 
Arkansas to supply her less favored neighbors with cheap building 
material and cabinet woods. 

A few years more and the opportunity to secure this timber at 
reasonable figures will be among the things of the past. The operators 
of saw mills, machinery, barrel works, wagon and agricultural shops 
and furniture establishments, are now attracted to these new lands and 
the forests. Formerly the timber was prepared roughly, to be finished 



ARKANSAS. 



47 



in other places. For fine work there was scarcely a turning lathe in 
the country, yet the same materials are repassed by the railway, 
polished up for sale to the people, and to find markets even in Texas 
and Mexico. 




The White River in the Ozarks. 



48 ARKANSAS. 

SPRINGS AND RESORTS. 



/ 



7(® | RKANSAS is the land of springs, furnishing pure, cold, life- 
J^jL giving waters, and here are also to be found many springs 
whose waters hold in solution various mineral properties healing 
certain classes of diseases which afflict the human race. Nature 
provides her own remedies, and has been very profuse in scattering 
them throughout Arkansas. The many smaller springs to be found 
in the mountain districts are overshadowed by the fame of Hot 
Springs, Eureka, Heber, Searcy and Ravenden. There is scarcely a 
county in the hilly or mountainous part of the State that does not 
number from one to many of these mineral springs within its borders. 
The only ones known, however, outside of the State are those men- 
tioned above, and the following brief description is as much as a work 
of this kind, which is devoted more particularly to the industrial 
resources of Arkansas, will allow. 

HOT SPRINGS. 

History gives us reasonable assurance that DeSoto discovered the Hot 
Springs, and spent one winter in camp at that point. They were known 
to the Indians long before the white man's foot had wakened the forest 
echoes west of the Mississippi. The sick from all the surrounding 
tribes were brought there to be cured of diseases that baffled their med- 
icine men. Their fame spread among all the southern tribes, and it 
was from these reports that Ponce De Leon conceived the idea of the 
Fountain of Youth, for which he searched in vain for many weary 
years. The early French settlers were the first to discover the true 
value of these thermal springs for healing diseases. During the early 
part of the present century French settlers, trappers and voyagers, made 
temporary use of these springs for the treatment of sick members 
of their families. Several log cabins were built in the valley, and they 
were refitted and used by any who chanced to come. 

The Hot Springs are situated on one of the lower spurs of the Ozark 
Mountains, about sixty miles southwest of Little Rock. The surface of 
the surrounding country is mountainous and broken enough to rob it of 
all monotony, and add a large item of interest to a sojourn in the health 
valley of Hot Springs. 



ARKANSAS. 49 

These springs are reached from the North and East by way of St. 
Louis and the Iron Mountain route. Three trains every day run from 
St. Louis in connection with trains from all through trunk lines to that 
point, and are equipped with Pullman Buffet Sleeping Cars and Reclin- 
ing Chair Cars, the seats in which are free. Travelers from the 
South arrive at Texarkana and take the Iron Mountain route from that 
point. The Iron Mountain route may be taken from the East at 
Memphis, and passengers are carried from that city via Little Rock 
to Malvern, where the change is made to the Hot Springs Railroad to 
Hot Springs, a distance of twenty-five miles. 

These Springs are one of the great natural curiosities of the world. 
Seventy-two streams of hot mineral waters issue from the mountain 
side, from 50 to 75 feet above the valley, and from 650 to 700 feet above 
sea level, and pour their liquid streams of health forth for the afflicted 
of all the earth. These waters have proven efficacious in many diseases 
where medical skill has been baffled. They are, therefore, at the same 
time the Mecca toward which the ill and afflicted turn for relief, an 
object of curiosity for the sight-seer, and a favorite resort for the 
pleasure seeker and tourist. They are annually visited by thousands. 
Society is of the best, and many permanent and beautiful homes have 
been built. 

The following diseases are successfully treated, the failure to cure 
being the exception; where a perfect cure is not effected, a benefit is 
experienced by all where the waters are properly used: Rheumatism, 
Gout, Scrofula, Paralysis, Neuralgia, Ozena, Catarrh, Sore Throat, 
Syphilis — acquired or hereditary, in all its different forms — Asthma, 
Gravel, Diseases of the Kidneys and Bladder, Eczema, Psoriasis, 
Urticaria, Impetigo, Prurigo, Rupia, Chronic Ulcers, Glandular Enlarge- 
ments, Ring Worm, Migraine, or Sick Headache, Enlarged Tonsils, 
Menstruation Troubles and Sterility. This a long list, yet the truth 
is not half told. Not a week passes but some remarkable cures are 
effected where all hope of recovery had been abandoned before a visit 
to these springs had been concluded upon. 

An important item to visitors, and especially to the invalid, is a good 
hotel. Several of the hotels of Hot Springs are first-class, they are large 
and well-built houses, and in cuisine and appointments unsurpassed. 

The Eastman Hotel, one of the grandest resort hotels in the 
United States, containing 480 rooms, was opened for the first time 
for the season of 1889. Another equally as magnificent, although 



t- 






£2 


loo/' 


" fit 


En- * In!- ' : ; '.fS-- J llBP 


;i ^SHS 


r -&;f * 











ARKANSAS. 51 

not so large, is the Park. The Arlington and Avenue Hotels 
can accommodate over 300 guests each; the Sumpter, Plateau and 
Waverly Hotels have room for about 100 each. With all the improve- 
ments now being made at the different hotels and boarding-houses, 
and the new ones that are being added to the list, there are accommo- 
dations for 6,000 visitors at one time, and allowing thirty days as an 
average time for visitors to remain here, there could be entertained at 
our hotels and boarding-houses 50,000 or 60,000 visitors in one year. 

There are ten or twelve houses that justly may be called hotels ; 
the others are only boarding-houses, though some of them give as good 
fare and accommodations as are to be had at some of the hotels. 
Private boarding-houses are numerous, and there is quite a difference 
between the cheapest of these and the high-priced hotels — $4 to $25 
being the range of prices, per week. 

RAVENDEN SPRINGS. 

These perfectly pure waters come gushing from the base of an almost 
perpendicular cliff, clear as crystal and very cold. Alongside runs a 
small mountain stream, except in spots, where, with the work of ages, 
it has made for its waters beautiful pools, some of them twelve and 
fifteen feet deep. 

The country is picturesque and romantic ; its elevation assuring pure 
air and pleasant, comfortable nights, even during the summer months. 
Plenty of game abounds throughout the surrounding hills and valleys; 
and within a few miles fish fit to tempt the palate of an epicure can 
be easily taken from Spring river, which is as clear, sparkling and beau- 
tiful as its name would indicate. 

Although these springs have been known but a few years, yet they 
have a record of many remarkable cures of diseases. They are espe- 
cially noted for curing dyspepsia, diseased eyes and affections of the 
kidneys. Their discovery arose from the cure of a case of dyspepsia of 
years' standing, the victim of that dread disease being a citizen of that 
locality and accidentally led to the use of the water. They are situated 
in the northwest corner of Randolph county, some thirty miles west of 
the Iron Mountain road. This long ride by stage has deterred many 
from going, but now that the opening of the Kansas City, Springfield 
& Memphis road brings the traveler within four miles of Rayenden, 
many will seek these waters who could not dare to venture heretofore. 



52 ARKANSAS. 



HEBER SPRINGS, 



At the town of Heber in Cleburne county, about 25 miles northwest 
from Bald Knob, which is on the main line of the St. Louis Iron Moun- 
tain and Southern Railway, are a cluster of wonderful healing springs, 
known as Heber or Sugar Loaf Springs. 

These springs are six in number, and are known as the Arsenic Spring, 
Black Sulphur, Chalybeate, Eye, Red Sulphur and White Sulphur 
Springs. They break out almost close together, several being within 
from 10 to 15 feet of others, but are quite varied in their chemical and 
medicinal properties, all are located on a plat of ten acres of ground 
only. 

They are attracting more and more attention each year, from the 
wonderful cures wrought by their healing waters. The only drawback 
to their more extended use has been want of railway communication, 
but this we learn will soon be remedied by the construction of a branch 
road from Bald Knob to Heber. 

These remarkable springs are on the foot-hills of the Boston Moun- 
tains, and near them is the picturesque defile known as the Harman 
Gap; there are many beautiful drives, and near by runs the Little 
Red River with ro antic turns and rocky walls, and this stream, 
together with its sister stream, the Owl Fork of White River, about 
fifteen miles further north, are fairly alive with excellent game fish ; 
deer and wild fowl invite the sportsman to the dells and cool shady 
nooks along the margins of the streams, or up the verdant hill sides 
or through mountain passes. 

These springs can now be reached by stage or private conveyance 
from Searcy, to which a branch railroad runs from Kensett, on the 
main line of the St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, or 
from Bald Knob. 

In addition to these there are medicinal springs in different parts of 
the State, such as Eureka, Pinnacle, Excelsior, Mountain Valley, 
Hempstead County Lithia and hundreds of others of local or growing 
reputation for their varied curative properties. 



ARKANSAS. 



53 



SEARCY SPRINGS. 

The White Sulphur Springs are located at Searcy, in White County, 
Ark., on the line of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. 
They are possessed of great healing properties, and are growing in 
popularity every year. Hotel accommodations are good, and Searcy is 
one of the most enterprising and progressive towns in the State. 




Little Red River, Arkan$as. 



54 ARKANSAS. 



EDUCATION. 



tRKANSAS has a well organized public school system, with a 
State Superintendent, and in each county an Examiner. 
Provision is made in the Constitution of the State for the support of 
public schools, requiring an annual tax of 20 cents upon each $100 of 
taxable property, to be levied and collected for that purpose, in addi- 
tion to a per capita tax of $1 upon each adult male inhabitant. The 
territory of each county has been laid off by the respective county 
courts into convenient school districts, which are managed by three 
directors, elected by the people of the district. In addition to the 
amount raised by State tax, each school district, by vote, can levy a 
tax not in excess of 50 cents upon the $100 for the support of its public 
schools. A large portion of the districts vote the full amount allowed 
by law, making in the aggregate for school purposes, 70 cents on the 
$100 of taxable property, together with a poll tax of $1. In towns and 
densely populated neighborhoods this enables the schools to be kept 
open for nine months in each year. In the sparsely settled sections the 
schools are kept open for so long as the amount of money available will 
justify. All are kept open at least three months in each year. Graded 
schools have been established in all of the cities and in the larger towns 
of the State. The Arkansas Industrial University, a State Institution, 
is located at the town of Fayetteville, m the county of Washington. 
For beauty and healthfulness its location is unsurpassed. The medical 
department of this University is established at Little Eock, with a full 
corps of Professors, composed of men eminent in the medical profes- 
sion. The course of study embraces three years, and is very thorough. 
A fine branch department for colored pupils is in successful operation 
at Pine Bluff, with a competent corps of teachers, and a full course of 
study. 

FREE SCHOOLS. 

The growth of her free schools within the last eight years has been 
unexampled. Free schools are taught in every neighborhood, village, 
town and city in the State, and thousands of children are receiving 
education and being prepared at these schools for intelligent, useful 



56 ARKANSAS. 

citizenship. The school statistics of 1892 show that there were then 
about 3,000 public school houses in the State, about 5,641 teachers, and 
about 300,000 pupils. For the year ending June the 30th, 1892, over 
$1,000,000 were expended for educational purposes in the common 
schools. Besides the public schools, there are in the State about twenty- 
five colleges and private schools, including the Arkansas Industrial 
University, the Institution for the Deaf Mutes, and the Arkansas School 
for the Blind. It is no doubt a matter of astonishment to those who 
have been wont to underrate our great State, that in proportion to her 
taxable values, Arkansas does more free school education than any 
State in the Union, the great State of Massachusetts not excepted. 
The old log school house has passed away. In the towns this has 
been displaced by more commodious and far more comfortable structures. 
In these, architectural skill has been displayed, and a proper regard 
for ventilation is evinced. Heat and the proper adaptation of light 
is more clearly marked than in the older houses. 

Every sixteenth section of land in each township of the State is 
reserved by law for school purposes, and the permanent and sixteenth 
section funds of the State now amount to about $500,000. 

The report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction shows a grati- 
fying condition of the growth of the public schools of the State. 

The number of pupils enrolled 

1868 67,412 

1880 98,744 

1885 175,935 

1890 242,117 

1891 251,452 

Teachers employed 

1869 1,355 

1888 4,664 

1892 5,641 

The total amount of monies received for school purposes is as follows 
in the years given : 

1868 $ 300,669 

1888 370,942 

1892 1,087,276 



ARKANSAS. 



57 



HUNTING AND FISHING IN ARKANSAS. 



pjj W many fishermen and hunters have sought patiently the realiza- 
ftl tion of their dream of a sportsman's paradise, and yet found it 
not — a charmed spot, where game and fish are ever present targets for 
shot and ball, and eager for the gaudy fly and shining minnow. To 
unhappy anglers who have suffered through long marches and gone 
unrewarded, or have traveled far for little sport, the lakes and rivers of 
Arkansas may be commended with a clear conscience. 




Farm Scene, North Fork, Ark. — Matney's Knob in Distance. 

Arkansas is truly the paradise of the sportsman. The tide of industrial 
progress rolling westward drove the game before it. The northwest, the 
favorite hunting grounds for years, is becoming rapidly depopulated of 
bird and beast. In Arkansas only of the Mississippi Valley States is to 
be found nearly all the original varieties of wild animals, birds and 
fishes. It is true the larger game is disappearing before the rapid 
settlement of the State. Bear are still found in some of the more 
sparsely populated mountain districts, while deer are plentiful, and can 
be frequently seen from the windows of moving trains quietly feeding 
or drinking. 



58 



ARKANSAS. 



Crossing the northern boundary of Arkansas at Moark, the first station 
of any importance is Corning, a favorite resort for fishermen from St. 
Louis and other Northern points. Black river, three miles to the east- 
ward, has an enviable reputation as a fishing stream, here, as elsewhere 
in its course, and thoroughly deserves the good opinion of the anglers 





sne — Arkansas. 



who frequent its banks ; while almost within sight of the station Corning 
lake spreads its placid surface in invitation to the dancing lure and tooth- 
some minnow. The fame of Corning lake surpasses that of other Arkansas 
waters, because it is oftener fished by parties living outside the State. It is 
a good place to go for a few days' sport because of its convenience to the 



ARKANSAS. 



59 



railroad and the fact that boats are handy and can be had at any time 
for a nominal sum, but there are hundreds of lakes as good, so far as 
the mere matter of fish is concerned, scattered here and there through- 
out the eastern portion of the "Bear State." Small houses for the con- 
venience of visiting sportsmen have been built at different points on 
Black river, and as they rent for a trifle, are in many ways preferable 
to the impromptu camps generally erected as a temporary makeshift 
without regard to the occupant's comfort. The forests in the vicinity 
are well stocked with game, large and small, deer being particularly 
abundant in the tract of country known as "Deer Range," lying east 
of Black river. 

Knobel, six miles farther down the road and beyond the crossing 
of Black river, is the junction point of the main line of the St. Louis, 
Iron Mountain and Southern and its Helena branch, and aside from its 

natural advantages of location in 
the heart of a first-class hunting 
and fishing country, is also par- 
ticularly desirable as a stopping 
place for sportsmen, since it is 
provided with good hotel accom- 
modations and is in easy reaching 
distance by rail of choice fishing 

!% fl •-■"<■ BL^ and shooting on the St. Francis 

t ^B^^^®*^ and L'Anguille rivers. Guides are 

obtainable here, as well as con- 
veyances for transferring tents 
and camp outfits to the hunt- 
ing grounds. Deer, turkeys and squirrels are easily found within six or 
eight miles of town, and splendid fishing for bass, pickerel and crappie 
in Mill, Maiden and Allen lakes, from two to four miles out. Cache 
river, at this point not more than six miles from the railroad, is famous 
for its game and fish; and after the fall rains have flushed its log- 
impeded channel a canoe or skiff voyage down its current to its con- 
fluence with White river, at Clarrmdon, two hundred miles below, 
would be an experience that any sportsman would heartily enjoy. 

Following a course parallel to that of the St. Francis river to 
Helena, its terminal point, the branch road from Knobel offers to 




60 



ARKANSAS. 



sportsmen a score of stopping places, any of which may be selected 
with confidence in the results. The famous Sunken Lands of the St. 
Francis have been so often described in glowing terms that it is quite 
unnecessary to grant them any of our limited space. Farther down, 
where the river, confined between narrower banks begins to develop a 
current and the impassable marshes give place to firmer soil, game is 
found in undiminished quantity and its pursuit can be followed under 
more favorable conditions. The name of the "Sunken Lands" is 
attractive, and it would be difficult to find a section of country better 
supplied with all that adds to the happiness of those who love the wild 
life of the forest, but all of this — not even excepting the wonderful wild- 



m 








mL 














., If 


sRt^yl 


■Vl- 







Hunters' Camp, near Hot Springs, Arkansas. 

fowl shooting in season — can be enjoyed on the lower river beyond the 
limits of this woodland lake. 

Gainesville, the first town of any size on the branch after Knobel 
has been left behind, has St. Francis lake in its vicinity which will 
furnish sufficient employment for the men of rod and reel, while, as 
elsewhere in this favored region, the gunners will never be at loss for 
targets upon which to display their skill. Brookland in Craighead 
and Hatchie Coon in Poinsett counties, stations of minor importance 
in some respects, are, nevertheless, worthy of remembrance by sports- 
men who may contemplate a visit to this portion of Arkansas,, for at 



ARKANSAS. 6l 

such points the trails leading to the woods are usually short and often 
indented throughout their length by the sharp hoofs of wandering deer 
hungry for a meal of the farmer's peas or sweet potato vines. Vann- 
dale and Wynne, in Cross county, are both noted points for deer 
bunting, while the different lakes in the St. Francis and L'Anguille 
bottoms, as well as both the rivers just named, afford an inexhaustible 
supply of bass, jack-salmon, crappie, and the other fishes common to 
this region. 

Marianna, twenty-six miles north of Helena, is not far from the 
confluence of the L'Anguille with the St. Francis, and between these 
two streams, for some distance above their juncture, is a large scope of 
unsettled country, at present the chosen haunt of the deer and bear. 
Here, the gray wolf still pursues his quarry as in the days before rail- 
roads had placed this wilderness within twelve hours of the South- 
western metropolis, and the panther's scream occasionally frightens the 
deer hunter from his stand or silences the sturdy challenge of the wild 
gobbler. Before the non-exportation laws went into effect, a great deal 
of game was shipped from this point, and enormous consignments of 
buffalo and catfish, taken from the adjacent rivers, still go to Northern 
dealers. Happily the shipment out of the State of other varieties is 
rigidly prohibited, but the local angler can supply his table, throughout 
the greater portion of the year, with the choicest of game fish, secured 
with even the most primitive of tackle from the pool or stream most 
convenient to his dwelling. 

Probably 90 per cent of the sportsmen, who may chance to drift 
down the main line of the Iron Mountain Route beyond Knobel, will 
drop off at De La Plaine or O'Kean, feeling convinced from past expe- 
rience, that the deer they are looking for can be easily found in the 
white oak flats contiguous to the Cache; if not in the river bottoms 
proper. The oak forests in the districts between the Black and Cache 
rivers have been sadly depleted by the axes of lumbermen and tie- 
makers, but the game still lingers in the old "chop-outs," though the 
undergrowth, in localities, is rendering its pursuit difficult. Fishing is 
good at both the points mentioned, but to enumerate the different lakes 
and small streams within reach would be unnecessary. 

From Walnut Ridge to Newport, at the crossing of White river, 
the railroad passes through a belt of country similar in nature to that 



62 



ARKANSAS. 



just described, with Black and Cache rivers about equal distance on 
either hand. Though settlements are scattered everywhere they are 
not so thick as to interfere with hunting to any marked degree. The 
hunter never goes away empty handed and when accompanied by 
hounds often kills deer within sight of the different towns, and turkeys 
forage the farmers' corn fields daily, while of smaller game therB is an 
unlimited abundance. Walnut Ridge claims for one of its citizens a 
record of five deer and twenty-five turkeys in one day, a score that will 




Fishing Camp, on White River, Arkansas. 

hardly be duplicated soon, but which speaks volumes for that localitv 
as a hunting resort. Wolves, wild cats and small game add zest and 
variety to the forest sports, and wherever fields of any size are 
encountered, good quail shooting with or without a dog, is easily 
obtainable. Newport, is perhaps one of the best fishing points in the 
State, as it is located on White river not far from the mouth of Black 
and within easy reach of Cache. Bass, salmon, crappie, pike and all 
kinds of perch are plentiful in these streams, as well as in Burgon lake, 
only three miles from the city, Gambol's lake about four and Waldo 



ARKANSAS. 63 

lake not more than five. On the large farms and cotton plantations in 
Big Bottom, some twenty miles up the White river branch, and Oil 
Trough Bottom, directly across the river from the locality just named, 
the lover of wing shooting can find quail to his heart's content. Here 
the birds are rarely disturbed by the local gunners who consider such 
small game unworthy of notice, and they are very numerous and easy 
of approach. Batesville is the terminus of the White river branch, 
and is located in the edge of the mountainous region that extends over 
the entire Western half of the State. During the winter months, small 
steamboats ascend the White river from Batesville to a point near the 
Missouri line, nearly two hundred miles as the river runs, and most of 
this distance is traversed amid scenery surpassing that along any other 
navigable stream east of the Rocky Mountains. Of Arkansas' mountain 
scenery, very little is known outside the State, but a rich harvest 
awaits the literary wight who shall first catch with his camera and 
describe with facile pencil the many points of beauty and interest lying 
along the cliff-shadowed White, between its source and the point where 
it leaves the hills to wander through forest and brake to the distant 
Mississippi. Large game in the neighborhood of Batesville is less 
abundant than at points lower down the river, but small game of all 
description can be taken in quantities. 

Bradfoed, on the main line below Newport, is in a good locality 
for both hunting and fishing, being handy to White river and possessed 
of all the advantages that such proximity supplies, while there is also a 
first-class deer range in the hills some nine or ten miles to the westward. 
Big lake, one mile east, and Little lake, about the ■same distance south, 
are both famous for the quantity of fish they contain, as well as on 
account of their unusual clearness, the bottom of either being visible 
at a depth of twenty feet. Other lakes abound, furnishing splendid 
fishing and good duck shooting in season. 

Memphis is now the eastern terminus of the Memphis Extension 
of the Iron Mountain route, and the completion of that branch made 
accessible, both from the east and west, a large tract of country unsettled 
and wild, and hitherto inaccessible, but which had long been known to 
abound in all kinds of game and fish. No point can be said to surpass 
another for hunting and fishing on this whole line, but at any point the 
sportsman chooses to embark he will find plenty of food for his ammu- 



fi4 



AEKANSAB. 



nition, and fish eager to snap his bait. The first train from Memphis 
took a party of hunters from that place, and almost immediately on its 
opening the Bald Knob Rod and Gun Club was organized with head- 
quarters at Earle, where they have erected a club house. The follow- 
ing are the varieties of fish found : black bass, speckled perch, brim, 
and pickerel. In game: he will find ample enjoyment in bringing 
down deer, turkeys, geese, ducks, quail, rabbits, squirrels, etc. Bald 
Knob Junction, the western terminus of this branch, was, until the 
non-export interfered, the favorite hunting ground for a number of 
market shooters, the flat woods, east of this point, fairly swarming with 
deer in the winter when the overflow had driven them from the low 
bottoms of White and Little Red rivers. In the winter of 1888-1889, 
over two hundred deer were killed within six miles of Bald Knob, and 
other seasons have seen this score exceeded. A great many bears still 
roam through the cane brakes skirting the rivers, faring sumptuously 
upon fresh pork whenever the fancy takes, and occasionally furnishing 
a feast for the farmer whose smoke-house stands empty by reason of 
their foraging. A description of the fishing in the neighborhood of 
Bald Knob would be merely a repetition of an old story. Streams and 

lakes are of precisely the 
same character as those 
mentioned in connection 
with other points, the va- 
riety of fish is identically 
the same, and the most 
persistent angler will 
always secure the fullest 
creel or heaviest string, 
for the amount of his catch 
is decided only by his 
ability to bait hooks and 
fight his fish. 

From Bald Knob to Little Rock the main line passes through a 
comparatively thickly settled district, gradually drawing away from the 
course of the larger streams. In this stretch of fifty-seven miles large 
game is scarce though by no means altogether lacking. Quail, squirrels 
and rabbits afford abundant sport for those who prefer the shotgun to 




ARKANSAS. 65 

the rifle, and turkeys frequent the field farthest from the farm houses, 
and find ample cover for the protection of their young broods in the 
belts of timber that still remain. As the Arkansas river is neared 
wild goose and duck shooting is good in the proper season, and many 
follow it as a profitable business, making five and six dollars a day. 
This is particularly the case at McAlmont, on the main line, six miles 
north of Little Rock, and here, too, fishing can be had fully equal to 
any in the State. Hill's lake, five miles east, is much frequented by 
fishermen from the surrounding country, while Frammel lake, one mile, 
Peelar lake, two miles, and Ink bayou, scarcely one-half mile east of 
town, all abound in bass, trout, pike and the different varieties of 
perch. Deer and turkeys are frequently killed in this locality and all 
sorts of small game is abundant. 

And the Bend of his graceful bow is seen, 
A glittering arch of silver sheen, 

Spanning the wave of burnished blue, 

And dripping with gems of river dew. 

At Teaskwood, the first station north of Malvern, the angler will 
receive intelligence of excellent fishing on every side, but will be some- 
what surprised to find that the favorite method oi obtaining a supply of 
the silvery-sided beauties is by spearing — or "rigging" as it is here 
termed. In the Saline river and its numerous feeders, the water is 
perfectly transparent, and, however deep the pools may be, the fish are 
readily discovered, and as readily secured, by an expert hand with the 
heavy, long-handled spear. At Donaldson, on the Ouachita, the same 
method of fishing is generally pursued, though a great many fish are 
shot with the rifle, in the use of which many of the residents of this 
vicinity gain a remarkable proficiency. It requires a peculiar training 
to enable any one to shoot fish in water of even moderate depth with 
any certainty, but an expert shot rarely misses his aim and it is no 
unfrequent feat to shoot a thirty or forty pound buffalo. In all the 
earns and lakes of this region the water is so clear that a pin can be 
ee'n lying at the bottom at a depth of ten feet, and so great is the 
variety and number of fish that fishing with a hook is rarely under- 
taken. At Donaldson deer are abundant and occasionally a bear is 
found in the breaks of the hills bordering the Ouachita bottoms. 
Where large game is easily found, it goes without saying, that there is 



66 ARKANSAS. 

no scarcity of the smaller beasts and birds, and at all points south of th« 
Arkansas river quail and squirrel shooting can be expected without the 
possibility of a disappointment. 

In this connection Arkadelphia can be mentioned as one of the 
best localities in the State for quail shooting, second only to portions of 
Calhoun and Union counties southeast of Camden. Clark county, in 
which Arkadelphia is located, has been long noted for the richness of 
its soil and the uniform success of its cultivators ; a goodly share of the 
county is in cultivation, and in Arkansas wherever there are open fields 
quail can be found by the hundreds and thousands. A good many old- 
time deer hunters reside at Arkadelphia and still own and train their 
packs of hounds, though deer in the immediate neighborhood of the 
town are growing scarce and hard to "jump." The Ouachita furnishes 
the best of fishing, and in the winter months the Arkadelphian finds 
abundant use for his shotgun in attempting to halt the flight of the 
ducks and geese that are following the river's course. 

Camden, mentioned above, is the terminus of the Camden branch 
and is thirty-four miles from the main line. This is one of the oldest 
towns of the State, and was the supply point for a large scope of terri- 
tory, in the days before the advent oi railroads, when the freight and 
passenger traffic of the entire country was handled by steamboats. 
Situated on the bank of the Ouachita, and with Woodard, Johnson, 
Pine, Mormon, Blue and Fisher's lakes all to be reached over good 
wagon roads in from thirty minutes to one hour, the angler who may 
chance to visit this town will hardly suffer for lack of opportunity to 
wet a line in waters fairly aswarm with bass, trout and perch. The 
hotel accommodations at Camden are excellent, guides easily obtain- 
able, and choice hunting grounds for large and small game close at hand. 

Boughton, on the main line a few miles below Gurdon, is in a good 
range for all-around hunting and fishing, the little Missouri and 
Antoine rivers and Cypress bayou, with other smaller streams and 
lakes supplying the wants of the most exacting of anglers, while all 
varieties of game common to the States abound. At Hope, a short 
branch line leads to Nashville, a prime point for all who love the. best 
of sport. Red and Little Saline rivers, Little river and me Little 
Missouri are all convenient and easy to reach, and the hunter who 
penetrates their thickly grown bottoms should keep on the alert for a 



ARKANSAS. 67 

shot at the largest of Arkansan game. Deer and wild turkeys are too 
common to deserve special notice, and bears and panthers are sometimes 
encountered. Washington, the first town reached on the branch, is 
but little further from the big game range and has excellent quail 
shooting in its vicinity. Fulton is another good stopping place for 
sportsmen, its location on Red river making it a particularly desir- 
able point for those who wish to get good fishing within rifle shot of a 
hotel, with an almost endless range for hunting on either hand. Little 
river which enters Red a short distance above Fulton can hardly be 
improved upon as a fishing stream 
and its name is connected with; 
half the bear-hunting yarns told' 
by the Nimrods of Southern Arkan- 
sas. Deer can be found both in the 
river bottoms and among the pine 
and oak forests of the flat lands 
and ridges, but still— hunting is 
rarely resorted to — the majority of 
the resident hunters preferring 
hounding. Turkeys are about the only other game generally hunted, 
though the woods are full of squirrels and rabbits, and the call of the 
Bob White echoes through every clearing. 

Conway, Mokrillton and Russellville are points on the Little 
Rock & Fort Smith division, and all of them report good fishing in the 
Arkansas river, as well as in the numerous small courses, that have 
their source in the Boston mountains, flowing into the Arkansas from 
the north. Small game is plentiful, and deer and turkeys can be found 
in the hills a few miles back from the river r though not in any great 
numbers. Piney, further west, is a more desirable point for hunting 
than any of those just mentioned, and for fishing is, perhaps, as good. 
Quail, squirrels and rabbits abound, as at all other points in the State, 
and deer are frequently killed on Big and Little Piney creeks at no 
great distance from the railroad. Wild geese and ducks are plentiful 
on the sandbars of the river in the winter seasons. 

Spadra is the first station on the Little Rock & Fort Smith division 
west of Clarksville. Spadra creek is fed by mountain springs. Its 
waters are as clear as crystal, and abound in mountain trout and a fine 




»■ 



58 ARKANSAS. 

variety of perch. The scenery along this stream has long been noted 
for its beauty and picturesqueness, its rocky banks resembling an 
Adirondack stream. The Arkansas river is near, where all the larger 
varieties of fish are found. In hunting, deer is the largest game. Tur- 
keys, ducks and squirrels furnish ample sport for the hunter in their 
season. Higher up on the mountains great sport is afforded in hunting 
the gray fox, which is very plentiful and valuable for its fur. 

Fort Smith is the western terminus of the Little Rock & Fort Smith 
division, and the region around about, especially to the north, south 
and west, is one vast hunting and fishing paradise. The streams near 
the city, in which black bass, pike, crappie and catfish abound, are Lees 
creek, Vache Grasse and Frog bayou in the State, and the Poteau and 
Illinois rivers and Vian and Salisaw creeks in the Territory. The fish- 
ing is excellent, but for genuine sport the hunter, with his gun and dog, 
has the call here. This sport is not confined to any particular locality, 
but parties are organized and excursions are made a hundred miles to 
the north, south and west, all of which territory is a vast hunting 
ground abounding in all kinds of game. The hunter will go prepared 
to shoot deer, foxes, turkeys, quail, ducks and chickens. Local sports- 
men are to be found who are always ready to join and assist in 
expeditions of this kind. 

There now remains to be described the different points of interest 
to sportsmen along the Houston, Central Arkansas & Northern. line, 
a branch of the Iron Mountain Route, at present extending from Little 
Rock to Alexandria, La., a distance of 305 miles. This line, through a 
goodly portion of its length, is of comparatively recent construction 
and renders accessible a vast stretch of unbroken forest but little 
known to hunters from the outer world — a hunting ground of more 
than ordinary merit, where the larger game can roam as far as 
their fancy dictates without finding their way barred by the settler's 
fence or encroaching upon the cleared fields that tell of civilization's 
irresistible march. The road follows, for the first part of its distance, a 
course parallel to that of the Arkansas river, though running from one to 
fifteen miles to the southward of that stream. Then, turning abruptly 
to the right, it bears away directly through the heart of Louisiana, 
passing through some old, long-settled farming districts, and, finally, 
plunging into the depths of the largest unbroken body of pine forest 



ARKANSAS. 69 

that the United States now contains, to emerge at last on the banks of 
the Red river at Alexandria. Every station in the entire distance 
deserves some share of our notice, for each has its surroundings of 
forest and stream ; each its enthusiastic sportsmen, proud of their own 
hunting grounds and loth to concede that there are better farther on. 
But want of space will forbid mention of many points that might well 
rank with the best. 

Wkightsville is twelve miles south of Little Rock, on the Arkansas 
City division, and, as a center for hunting and fishing, is unsurpassed. 
It is three miles from the Arkansas river, two and one-half miles from 
Horseshoe lake, and one mile from Pennington lake, which is fed by 
Fish creek. Pike, bass, cat, white perch, trout and sun fish are on the 
constant lookout for the fisherman's hook. Commencing at Penning- 
ton lake and extending westward to the Saline river is an expanse of 
uninhabited region known as the Pennington Forest. This is composed 
of pine and cypress timber, with large tracts of jungle and cypress 
brakes. Deer and turkeys have their favorite haunts here and small 
game abounds in unlimited quantities. 

Redfield is on the Arkansas City section south of Wrightsville. 
Deer, turkeys, squirrels, rabbits and quail abound in large quantities in 
that vicinity, and the hunter will not have to go beyond a radius of ten 
miles from town to satisfy his desire to kill something. In the way of 
fishing, Harris and Lipscomb lakes, the Arkansas river, Bitter, Camp 
and Harrison creeks, are all within three and a half miles of Redfield 
and are well stocked with black bass, trout, jack perch, catfish and 
buffalo. 

Jefferson Springs is between Little Rock and Pine Bluff, on the 
Arkansas City section, and has for fishing waters the Arkansas river 
and its bayous, in which are found catfish, perch, black bass and 
several other varieties in abundance. The woods in this vicinity have 
plenty of deer, foxes, rabbits, opossums, squirrels, and, in their season, 
turkeys, geese, ducks, and quail. Pigeons are also to be found in great 
numbers. 

Pine Bluff is the most important city on the Arkansas City divis- 
ion, and is the center of excellent hunting and fishing territory. The 
Saline river, Atkins lake and Clear lake abound in mountain trout, 
speckled perch, black bass, catfish, etc., and splendid camping facilities 



■o 



ARKANSAS. 



are to be found around these lakes. The shooting is also fine, and deer, 
turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, grouse, quail and ducks are easily bagged. 
Occasionally a bear may be met, but they are becoming scarce. Foxes 
are so common that fox-hunting has ceased to be sport for the old hun- 
ters. The winter is very dry and pleasant, and after the first of 
October this is a veritable hunter's paradise. 

Noble Lake, on the Arkansas City section, has in its vicinity the 
Arkansas river, Atkins lake and Noble lake, which are well-stocked 

with trout, cat- 
fish, buffalo, 
speckled perch, 
white perch and 
sunfish. The 
whole country 
about this place 
is a vast hunt- 
ing ground in 
which are found 
large quantities 
of deer, turkeys, 
squirrels, rab- 
bits, foxes, 
geese , ducks 
and quail. 

Leaving No- 
ble lake behind, 
an ideal deer 
country is found near Varner, the third 
station beyond. The timber growth, which 
between Little Rock and Pine Bluff was 
principally pine, has changed again, and the broad flats lying along the 
headwaters of Bayou Bartholomew are wooded with the different varie- 
ties of oak, gum, elm and hickory. The undergrowth is rather close 
here for rifle shooting, but a shotgun answers as well at close quarters, 
and around Varner it is unnecessary to risk long range shots. Turkeys 
are quite plentiful, as they usually are in a region where pin-oak acorns 
cover the ground in autumn and winter, and the wild blackberry ripens 




ARKANSAS. 71 

its fruit in early summer. Squirrels are everywhere. On the Arkansas 
river, north of the town, and across the river at the mouth of Bayou 
Meto, a good many bears can yet be found, but they are hunted per- 
sistently by market gunners, who ship their meat to Pine Bluff and 
Little Rock, and their numbers are rapidly decreasing. 

Dumas is a station of small importance in some respects, but the 
residents of the little town are sportsmen, and they live in a locality 
where they can gratify their fancy for deer driving to the utmost. The 
stranger in their midst, if possessed of a taste for such sport, would be 
heartily invited to join in their wild rides after the fleet-footed and 
evasive buck, and it is nothing uncommon for a hunting party to kill 
twelve or fifteen in a single day. 

Walnut Lake, the next station to Dumas, has an enviable reputa- 
tion as a fishing and duck shooting resort. The lake is deep and clear, 
and its beauty, quite as much as the fine fishing it affords, attracts 
numerous parties from as far away as Little Rock. A shooting club 
from the State's capital has a club house on the bank of Walnut Lake, 
and it is occupied pretty regularly during the hunting season. 

Winchester, a few miles farther on, claims the reputation of ship- 
ping more deer during the open season than any other station in 
Arkansas. In 1890, two men, hunting principally at night with head- 
lights, killed 145 and 87 deer respectively. That this wholesale slaughter 
did not ''utterly extinguish the breed," is evidenced by the fact that 
twenty-six deer were shipped from Winchester on one train in the fall 
of '92, and hardly a day passed that shipments of less consequence 
were not made. The hunting grounds extend pretty generally in every 
direction for a number of miles, but the best is to be found between the 
railroad and Arkansas river some fifteen miles away. Bears and wolves 
are often killed by the deer hunters, and turkeys and small game are to 
be had "in quantities to suit" — if such a phrase is applicable here. 

Dermott is situated in the midst of a scope of wild country lying 
between Bayou Bartholomew and the Mississippi river, and possessing 
an inexhaustible supply of game of all descriptions. There are many 
so-called good hunting grounds where the citizen with non-observant 
habits, or the stay-at-home farmer, will tell you that game is "pow T 'e'fu3 
sca'ce," but the good people of Dermott are all willing to confess that 
the woods around them are swarming with wild life. The fact is so 



72 ARKANSAS. 

patent that they cannot help observing it. Even a blind man, if served 
with three meals of venison p°r day for a series of months, would, in 
the end, be forced to admit that there must be more or less deer in the 
vicinity, and there are ways in which the mentally blind may be made 
to see. Fishing in the neighborhood of Dermott is good, bass, trout 
and perch being the principal varieties that interest anglers ; but buffalo 
and cat, of the largest size, abound, while small fry, such as crappie, 
perch, etc., snap greedily at the baited hook as soon as it touches the 
water. Mason's, Barth's and Big bayous, and many lakes, large and 
small, are close at hand, and it is not far to Bartholomew and the 
Mississippi. 

Morell and Portland, the latter near the Louisiana line, are both 
good points for parties to visit in search of choice shooting and angling, 
Dobson's Ferry, on Bceuff river, twelve miles southeast of Portland, 
being a notable place for game and fish even in this "land of plenty" 
where deer skins are tacked against the side of every cabin, and fish 
are so plentiful that hooks and lines are unnecessary for their capture. 
The "deep water" in Bceuff river ranges from ten to forty feet for a 
stretch of eighteen miles, and it runs through a belt of forest nine miles 
wide without settlements. 

In Arkansas, while judicious game-protective measures have 
been adopted and are generally respected and enforced, the open 
seasons are long, and the privileges allowed can be thoroughly enjoyed. 
Here the severity of winter storms or the impediment of snow drifts 
twenty feet in depth never intervene to hinder the hunter in pursuit of 
his game. Taking the season through not a single day need be lost 
from sport by reason of icy winds or penetrating cold, and, better than 
all the rest, the sportsman who wanders in this direction in search of 
recreation, when returning home is never compelled to stop en route 
and search the city markets for woodland trophies that he has failed to 
obtain in a more legitimate manner. 



ARKANSAS. 73 



POPULATION OF ARKANSAS BY COUNTIES. 

Arkansas was organized as a Territory March 2, 1819, and ad- 
mitted as a State June 15, 1836. In 1810 Arkansas County, then 
in the Territory of Louisiana, but subsequently included in the Terri- 
tory of Arkansas, had a population of 1,062. Table 1 shows the 
population of Arkansas at each census from 1820 to 1900, inclusive, 
together with the increase by number and per cent during each 
decade. 

TABLE 1.— POPULATION OF ARKANSAS. 1820 TO 1900. 

^-Increase.-^ 

Census Years — Population. Number. Per Cent. 

1900 1,311,564 183,385 16.25 

1890 1,128,179 325,654 40.58 

1880 802,525 318,054 65.65 

1870 484,471 49,021 11.26 

I860 435,450 225,553 107.46 

1850 209,897 112,323 115.12 

1840 97,574 67,186 221.09 

1830 30,388 16,133 113.17 

1820 14,255 

The population of the State in 1900 is 1,311,564, as against 
1,128,179 in 1890, representing an increase since 1890 of 183,385, or 

16.25 per cent. This rate of increase is only about two-fifths of that 
for the decade from 1880 to 1890 when it was 40.58 per cent, and less 
than one-fourth of that for the decade from 1870 to 1880, when it 
was 65.65 per cent. From 1860 to 1870 there was an increase of only 

11.26 per cent, but prior to 1860 the population more than doubled 
itself during each decade, and for the decade from 1830 to 1840 
showed an increase of 221.09 per cent. 

The population of Arkansas in 1900 is more than ninety times 
as large as the population given for 1820, the first census taken 
after its organization as a Territory in 1819. 

The total land surface of Arkansas is, approximately, 53,045 
square miles, the average number of persons to the square mile at 
the censuses of 1890 and 1900 being as follows: 1890, 21.27: 1900, 
24.73. 

Table 2 shows the population of Arkansas by counties at each 
census from 1820 to 1900, inclusive, and shows, for each county, 
the increase (or decrease) by number and per cent during the 
ten years from 1890 to 1900. 



74 ARKANSAS. 

TABLE 2— POPULATION OP ARKANSAS BY COUNTIES in 1900, 
AND INCREASE 1890 TO 1900. 

Counties— 1900. 

The State 1,311,564 

Arkansas- 12,973 

Ashley 19,734 

Baxter '. 9,298 

Benton 31,611 

Boone 16,396 

Bradley 9,651 

Calhoun 8,539 

Carroll 18,848 

Chicot 14,528 

Clark 21,289 

Clay 15,886 

Cleburne" 9,628 

Cleveland 4 11,620 

Columbia 22,077 

Conway 19,772 

Craighead 19.505 

Crawford 21,270 

Crittenden 14,529 

Cross 11,051 

Dallas 11,518 

Desha 5 . 11,511 

Drew 19,451 

Faulkner 20,780 

Franklin" 17,395 

Fulton 12,917 

Garland 18,773 

Grant 7,671 

Greene 16,979 

Hempstead 24,101 

Hot Spring 12,748 

Howard 14,076 

Independence 3 22,557 

Izard 13,506 

Jackson 18,383 

Jefferson 7 40.972 

Johnson 17,448 

Lafayette 10,594 

Lawrence 16,491 

Lee 19,409 

Lincoln 13,389 

Little River 13,731 

Logan • 20,563 

Lonoke 8 22.544 

Madison" 19.864 

Marion 11,377 

Miller 17,558 

Mississippi 16,384 

Monroe 8 16,816 



,— Increase 




Number. 


Per Cent. 


183,385 


16.25 


1,541 


13.48 


6,439 


48.43 


771 


9.04 


3,895 


14.05 


580 


3.67 


1,679 


21.06 


1,272 


17.50 


1,560 


9.02 


3,109 


27.23 


292 


1.39 


3,686 


30.21 


1,744 


22.12 


258 


2.27 


2,184 


10.98 


313 


1.61 


7,480 


62.20 


1444 


a 2.04 


589 


4.23 


3,358 


43.65 


2,222 


23.90 


1,187 


11.50 


2,099 


12.10 


2,438 


13,29 


J 2,539 


a 12.74 


1.933 


17.60 


3,445 


22.48 


a 115 


J 1.48 


4,071 


31.54 


1,305 


5.72 


1,145 


9.87 


287 


2.08 


596 


2.71 


468 


3.59 


3,204 


21.11 


91 


0.22 


690 


4.12 


2,894 


37.58 


3,507 


27.01 


523 


2.77 


3,134 


30.56 


4,828 


54.23 


J 211 


1 1.02 


3,281 


17.03 


2,462 


14.15 


987 


9.50 


2,844 


19.33 


4,749 


40.82 


1,480 


9.65 



ARKANSAS. 



75 



f Incr6S,SC * 

Counties— 1900. Number. Per Cent. 

Montgomery 9,444 1,521 19.20 

Nevada 16,609 1,777 11.98 

Newton 12,538 2,588 26.01 

Ouachita 20,892 3,859 22.66 

Perry 7,294 1,756 31.71 

Phillips 26,561 1,220 4.81 

Pike 10,301 1,764 20.66 

Poinsett 7,025 2,753 64.44 

Polk 18,352 9,069 97.69 

Pope 21,715 2,257 11.60 

Prairie 8 11,875 501 4.40 

Pulaski 63,179 15,850 33.49 

Randolph 17,156 2,671 18.44 

St. Francis 17,157 3,614 26.69 

Saline 13,122 1,811 16.01 

Scott 13,183 548 4.34 

Searcy 11,988 2,324 24.05 

Sebastian 36,935 3,735 11.25 

Sevier 16,339 6,267 62.22 

Sharp 12,199 1,781 17.10 

Stone 8,100 1,057 15.01 

Union 22,495 7,518 50.20 

Van Buren 3 11,220 2,653 30.97 

Washington 34,256 2,232 6.97 

White 3 24,864 1,918 8.36 

Woodruff 16,304 2,295 16.38 

Yell 22,750 4,735 26.28 

decrease. 

2 Part of Desha annexed and part given to Jefferson since 1880. 

•Cleburne organized from parts of Independence, Van Buren and White in 1883. 

4 Name changed from Dorsey in 1885, 

B Part given to Arkansas County since 1880. 

B Part of Madison annexed to Franklin in 1885. 

7 Part of Arkansas County since 18S0. 

"Parts of Prairie annexed to Lonoke and Monroe since 1880. 

There have been no territorial changes in the counties of Arkan- 
sas since 1890. 

Of the 75 counties in the State all but 4 have increased in popu- 
lation during the decade, the counties showing more than 50 per cent 
cf increase being Polk, 97.69 per cent: Poinsett, 64.44 per cent: 
Sevier, 62.22 per cent: Craighead, 62.20 per cent: Little River, 
54.23 per cent, and Union, 50.20 per cent. Pulaski County shows the 
largest numerical increase (15,850), but fully three-fourths of this 
increase is due to the increase in the population of the city of Little 
Rock. 

The four counties showing a decrease in population are Craw- 
ford, Franklin, Grant and Logan. 



76 ARKANSAS. 

UNITED STATES LANDS 
Subject, to Homestead Entry in Arkansas. 

fHERE are in Arkansas at present 5,000,000 acres of government 
lands subject to the homestead laws of the United States. Every 
citizen of the United States who is the head of a family, or over 21 years 
of age, is entitled to one entry under the homestead act. But one 
homestead entry is allowed to each citizen. An entry on one 40-acre 
tract exhausts a right as much as on a whole quarter section. Home- 
stead entry requires residence on and cultivation of the land. 

Homestead entries can be made for not more than 160 acres in a con- 
tiguous form; tracts "cornering" are not contiguous. 

The Land Office fees and commissions, payable when application is 

made, are as follows : 

160 Acres Fee $10.00, Commissions $4.00, Total $14.00 

120 " " 10.00 " 3 00 " 13.00 

80 " " 5.00 " 2.00 " 7.00 

40 " " 5.00 " 1.00 " 6.00 

A person desiring to enter a tract of land upon which he has not es- 
tablished a residence nor made improvements, must appear personally 
at the district land office and make his application before the Registei 
and Receiver, after having seen the land. 

He must then establish actual, bona fide residence (in a house) upon 
the land within six months from date of entry, and must reside upon it 
continuously for five years. 

In case of the death of a homestead settler, before making proof, the 
widow succeeds to the homestead right; but she must continue to cul- 
tivate the landuntil final proof is made and accepted. 

In case of the death of both father and mother, the right and fee 
inure to the minor children, if any. 

A homestead right can not be devised away from the widow and 
minor children. 

A Union (or Federal) soldier or sailor of the late war is entitled to a 
deduction from the five years of the length of time (not exceeding four 
years) of his military or naval service. But the soldier (or his widow) 
must actually reside on the land at least one year before final proof can 
be made. Certified copy of discharge papers should be submitted with 
the proof. 



ARKANSAS. 77 

RAILROAD LANDS. 



N 1853 Congress passed an act, and subsequently confirmed it in 
] 866, whereby a certain number of sections of land were granted 
for every mile of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway 
constructed. This was a liberal grant, and extended for twenty miles 
on either side of the track. Out of the original amount a total of 639,- 
884 acres still remain unsold, and subject to purchase by those desiring 
a home. By recent purchase of lands on the line of the Little Rock, 
Mississippi River & Texas Division, nearly 200,000 acres were added to 
the above amount, making a grand total of nearly 839,584 acres of 
good farming lands for sale at reasonable rates. 

In addition to the above, the railway company offers for sale at cor- 
respondingly low prices and on like favorable terms the lands granted 
to the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railway, aggregating now 502,600 
acres. The price of this land varies according to quality and 
location. The uplands range in price mostly from $2.50 to $5.00 per 
acre; the creek bottoms from $4.00 to $10. As must necessarily be the 
case, these lands are near the railroads, and there are, consequently, 
always ready and good markets for produce within easy access. 

Railway lands are offered on the following easy terms: 

TERMS OF SALE. 

Credit Plan. — Under this plan the purchaser is required to pay one- 
fourth of the purchase price at date of sale— the remaining three fourths 
is divided into three equal annual payments, drawing interest at six per 
cent per annum. 

See the following example for full explanation : 

Forty acres sold March 1st, 1894, at $3.00 per acre, one-fourth cash 
being paid down, balance to be paid in three equal annual payments 
with six per cent annual interest. 

PAYMENTS. WHEN DUE PRINCIPAL. INTEREST. TOTAL. 

1st, or Cash March 1, 1894, $30 00 $30 00 

2d, Deferred " 1, 1895, 30 00 $1 80 31 80 

3d, " " 1, 1896, 30 00 3 60 33 60 

4th " " 1, 1897, 30 00 5 40 35 40 

Cash Plan. — We offer a discount of ten per cent from the price per 
acre to those who will pay in full for the land at the time of purchase. 
Thus land at $3.00 per acre on credit term3, can be bought for $2.70 
per acre. All cash down. 



78 ARKANSAS. 

A great work has been done by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & 
Southern Railway by opening to settlement Central and Northeast 
Arkansas, and more recently the southern and southwestern portion of 
the State. This gives an opportunity for investment in all kinds of 
enterprises and industries, any of which will eventually lead to success, 
if the settler has the requisite energy and perseverance. The lands 
could not be better for general farming purposes. The season for culti- 
vation is a very long one, lasting from February until November, and 
therefore highly favorable to many crops that require not only warm 
springs, but the moderate temperature of a long autumn. A climate 
and soil which thus secure the agriculturist against the fear of 
droughts, and also of early frosts, will be recognized at once as being as rare 
as it is propitious, and as offering unusual inducements to immigrants. 

The land grant of the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railway, 502,600 
acres still unsold, extends the length of the Arkansas River 
Valley from Little Rock to Fort Smith. It lies on either side of 
the track, in alternate sections, and has the Arkansas river running 
through its entire length. A land grant, with a navigable river 
and a first-class railway running through it from end to end, 
is not found in every State. The soil of this tract is not only rich, 
but versatile to a high degree in the variety of crops of which it is 
capable. It lies between the lines of latitude that stand as a barrier to 
the vigorous winds of winter and the intense heat of the semi-tropical 
summer. Here are but three short months of an open winter, with 
nine months of a long, balmy, golden season, when all crops come to 
perfection, and are harvested in their full maturity. It was not in- 
tended that such a wealth of natural resources should always remain 
unknown. But public notice was diverted for a time to less favored 
regions through the medium of the public press and highly colored 
advertising. This country could be overlooked only for a short time. 
Such advantages were bound to speak and demand an impartial hear- 
ing. The products of this valley have been placed before the gaze of 
the public at various expositions throughout the country. They have 
told their own story. The tide is turning, and the stream of home- 
seekers is now coming to this modern Eden, from which there is no 
danger of expulsion. You are welcome and bidden to enter. Study 
the array of natural advantages, and you will accept the invitation. 



ARKANSAS. 



:<> 



Let everybody come— the farmer with his plow to turn the soil and reap 
the bountiful harvests; the woodsman with his axe to clear the prime- 
val forest of its giant trees ; the miner with his pick ; the artist with his 
brush ; the hunter with his dog and gun ; the fisherman with his rod ; 
the mechanic with his saw and hammer ; the mason with his trowel ; 
and the man of money with his capital. Come to Arkansas, you are all 
wanted. One can get along only by the aid of the others. 

Write to G. A. A. Deane, Land Commissioner, Little Rock, Ark., 
for prices, terms of sale, location, etc., of railroad lands. 




Happy Little Arkansas Coon. 



GET A HOME 

IN 

Arkansas - - - 

m THE LAND OF FRUITS, 

*« GOOD HEALTH AND PLENTY. 

TWO MILLION ACRES tm 

FINE FARMING, 

GRAZING, 

TIMBERED, 

FPIIIT AND 

MINERAL LANDS, 

IN TRACTS TO SUIT PURCHASERS. 




Jlild Climate. ) r, _, f 

Low Prices. { Easy Terms. { 



riild Climate. ) r-> ^ f Varied Products. 

Low Interest. 



WRITE TO- 



G. A. A. DEANE, 

Land Commissioner, LITTLE ROCK, ARK. 
ST. LOUIS, IRON riOUNTAIN & SOUTHERN 

AND 

LITTLE ROCK & FORT SMITH RAILWAYS. 



n<TTTAT2Tir. Acroj^TANCFr 




3KS5B| 



'HlckmarMjT;* 



ysntorjvijjc 




T^- 


J E ii 


T N 




(^rhiiW^ 




b$rr 


F^jfert 




v5~ 


LLjuZ^I 


»(«r/ 


»-Js- 


'"fe&t^ 




:,.-!.. 


VAlkl 




r o > 


JonihvrUgk 


Sr.r. 


'""l 



VALUABLE- ASSISTANCE. 

, «, 

The following Traveling and Passenger Agents of the MISSOURI PACIFIC RAIL- 
WAY and IRON MOUNTAIN ROUTE ase constantly looking after the interests* of the 
Line, and will call upon parties contemplating a trip and cheerfully furnish them 
lowest Rates of Fare, Land Pamphlets, Maps, Guides, Time Tables, etc. 
Or they may be addressed as follows : 

ATCHISON, KAN.— C. E. Styles Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

AUSTIN, TEX.— J. C. Lewis Traveling Passenger Agent. 

BOSTON, MASS.— Louis W. Ewald ..New England Pass'r Agent, 192'Washington St. 

CAIRO, ILL.— C. G. Miller City Ticket Agent, 309 Ohio Levee. 

I. P. Spinner Ticket Agent, Union Depot 

CHATTANOOGA, TENN.— I. E. Rehlander Traveling Pass'r Agent, 16 East 8th St. 

CHICAGO, ILL.— Bissell Wilson District Passenger Agent, 111 Adams St. 

CINCINNATI, OHIO— A. A. Gallagher, District Pass'r Agt., 408 Vine St, bet. Fourth. 
and Fifth Sts. 
T. A. Wilkinson, Trav. Pass'r and Land Agt., 408 Vine St., bet. 
Fourth and Fifth Streets. 
DENVER, COLO.— C. A. TRiPP..Gen'l Western Frt. and Pass'r Agt., cor. 17th & Stout Sts. 

E. E. Hoffman Traveling Passenger Agent. 

DETROIT, MICH.— H. D. Armstrong Traveling Pass'r Agt., 32 Campus Martius. 

FT. SCOTT, KAN.— I. R. Sherwin Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

HOT SPRINGS, ARK.— J. S. Reamey : Ticket Agent. 

INDIANAPOLIS, IND.— G. A. A. Deane, Jr Traveling Pass'r Agent, Room 16 Clay- 

poole Building, cor. Washington and Illinois Sts. 

KANSAS CITY, MO.— E. S. Jewett Passenger and Ticket Agent, 901 Main St. 

J.H. Lyon Western Passenger Agent, 901 Main St. 

J. F. Etter Passenger and Assistant Ticket Atrt., 901 Main St. 

P. C. Lyon Traveling Passenger Agent. 

Tom Hughes City Passenger Agent, Union Depot. 

LEAVENWORTH, KAN.— J. N. Joerger Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

LINCOLN, NEB.— F. D. Cornell Passenger and Ticket Agent, 1039 O St. and Depot. 

LITTLE ROCK, ARK.— J. A. Hollinger Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

LOUISVILLE, KY.— R. T. G. Matthews Traveling Passenger Agent, 304 West Main . 

MEMPHIS, TENN.— H. D. Wilson Pass'r and Ticket Agt., 314 Main St., (cor. Monroe. 

Ellis Farnsworth, Trav. Pass'r Agent, 314 Main St., (cor. Monroe). 

MEXICO CITY, MEX.— H. C. Dinkins , General Agent, Hotel Coliseo. 

NEW YORK CITY— W. E. Hoyt General Eastern Passenger Agent, 391 Broadway. 

J. P. McCann Traveling Passenger Agent, 391 Broadway. 

OMAHA, NEB— Thos. F. GoDFREY-.Pass'r and Tkt. Agt., S. E. cor. 14th and Douglas Sts. 

W. C. Barnes Trav. Pass'r Agent, S. E. cor. 14th and Douglas Sts. 

J. K. Chambers Ticket Agent, Union Passenger Station. 

PITTSBURG, PA.— John R. James Central Pass'r Agt., Room 905 Park Building, 

Fifth Ave. and Smithfield Street. 

PUEBLO, COLO.— Wm. Hogg Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

ST. JOSEPH, MO.— Benton Quick... Passenger and Ticket Agent, S. E. cor.6th&Edmond. 

ST. LOUIS, MO — B. H. Payne Assistant General Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

H. F. BERKLEY...Pass'r&Tkt. Agent, N.W. cor. Broadway and Olive St. 
M. Griffin ...City Passenger Agent, N.W. cor. Broadway and Olive St. 

W. H. Morton..." Passenger Agent, Room 402, Union Station. 

A. V. Brigham Traveling Passenger Agent for Arkansas. 

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH— H. B. Kooser Com. Freight & Passenger Agt. , 

Nos. 105 and 107 West Second St. (South). 

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.— L. M. Fletcher Pacific Coast Agent, 212 California St. 

E. J. Waugh Trav. Pass'r Agent, 212 California St. 

SEDALIA, MO.— J. W. McClain Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

TEXARKANA, ARK.— P. E. Baer Ticket Agent. 

WICHITA, KAN.— E. E. Bleckley Passenger and Ticket Agent, 114 N. Main St. 



C.G.WARNER, RUSSELL HARDING, 

2d Vice-President, 3d Vice-Pres't and Gen'l Manager. 

H. C. TOWNSEND, 

General Passenger and Ticket Agent, 

St. Louis, Mo. 




Iron 

Mountain 

Route, 



HS GREAT SOUTHWEST SYSTEM. 

CONNECTING THE COMMERCIAL CENTRES AND RICH FARMS OF 

MISSOURI, 

THE BROAD CORN AND WHEAT FIELDS AND THRIVING TOWNS OP 

KHNSHS, 

THE FERTILE RIVER VALLEYS AND TRADE CENTRES OF 

NEBRHSKH, 

THE GRAND, PICTURESQUE AND ENCHANTING SCENERY. AND 
THE FAMOUS MINING DISTRICTS OF 



COLORADO, 



THE AGRICULTURAL, FRUIT, MINERAL AND TIMBER LANDS. AND 
FAMOUS HOT SPRINGS OF 

HRKHNSHS, 

THE BEAUTIFUL ROLLING PRAIRIES AND WOODLANDS OF THE 

INDIHN TERRITORY, 

THE SUGAR, COTTON AND TIMBER PLANTATIONS OF 

LOUISIHNK, 

THE COTTON AND GRAIN FIELDS, THE CATTLE RANGES AND 
WINTER RESORTS OF 

TEXHS, 

HISTORICAL AND SCENIC 

ni n irNn NEM MEXICO, 

NNECTIONS THE POPULAR ROUTE TO 

NDCHLIFORNIH. 



mmm^ 





